


Tutorial Mode

by Mishiman



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gaming, Masturbation, Polythieves (Persona 5), Post-Canon, Roleplay, this is goofy af
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-05-24 19:26:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 22,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14960651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mishiman/pseuds/Mishiman
Summary: 'Futaba had screwed up worse than she'd thought. "I'm - I'm sorry I talked about your boyfriend's junk at school."Ann rolled towards her all at once, blonde hair flying. She yanked Futaba into a hard hug and let her go. "He's not. Don't worry." She grinned. "He liked it, anyway."'Takes place in the school year after the game, after Akira has moved away. Futaba has started school at Shujin, and Ann and Ryuji are her two infuriating senpais.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to Nico for being my sounding board and suggesting ways to get past some of the more awkward part of the girls' conversation (not that the end result is any less awkward.)

It always came down to this.

  
At lunchtime, Futaba was stopped by a giant at the door to Ann's classroom. "Oh, can I help you?" The third-year was polite enough, but his height alone was almost enough to scare her off. There'd already been a couple times where she really had just turned tail and ran. Never mind the fact that he'd just _said_ something to her. Something that required a response, even.

  
"Urrrgh... " She peered around him and scanned the desks until she spied familiar blonde pigtails. _"Ann - pssst - "_

  
Her stage whisper hadn't reached Ann, but the third-year at the door seemed to have gotten the picture. "Takamaki-san, I think you have a visitor." The look he was giving her was a little less polite now. That look went straight into hostile territory when she tried to wriggle between him and the open doorway to get inside the classroom. This wasn't their first encounter, though, and he was ready for her - he just shot out his arm and blocked her easily. Clearly she'd have to pick up a new tactic for the next time they met in combat.

  
Ann saved her. "Coming!" She jogged to the doorway of her class, her hair and everything else bouncing until Futaba didn't know where to look. It wasn't her fault if she _did_ look, anyway. Ann was just a bouncy person, and motion draws the eye, right? "Sorry, Futaba! I was just packing up."

  
Now that Akira had moved back home for his last year of high school, and it was just Futaba, Ann and Ryuji at Shujin, Ann was saving her a lot. Akira may have been her key item last year, but now that he was gone, Ann was the one who was essential to her.

  
On her very first day at high school, she'd felt like she was slowly drowning. She made it onto the train, and she even made it through the front gate, but by the time she'd passed through the front door of Shujin Academy, she'd used up all of her SP before the first bell had even rung. There were _hundreds_ of them, all of them wearing the same blazer that she was, and she couldn't see a thing through the sea of black. She knew that she needed to find out where her homeroom class was but she couldn't even see the walls of the hallway anymore. Seeing over anyone's head was out of the question. She was frozen to the spot, debating if it would be considered weird to get on her hands and knees and crawl through the forest of legs until she got to the bulletin board with the class assignments, when she spotted that blonde hair. She was drowning, but Ann stuck out her hand and saved her. "Oh, Futaba! I was looking for you! Do you know where you need to go?" Having an amazon on your side came in handy. Ann could see straight over every other girl's head, and a lot of the boys', too. She left Futaba on her own for less than a minute (she'd counted in her head) and then took her hand - just like that, like it was nothing to her - and found her classroom for her. Ann had dropped her off at the doorway and promised to find her at lunch again for a status update.

  
Futaba had clung on for dear life every day since.

  
The towering third-year stepped aside for Ann, and when she was through the door and no longer facing him, Futaba caught him giving Ann a certain kind of look. She got that look a lot, Futaba noticed. For every time Ann went with her to Akihabara, Futaba owed her a Harajuku trip, and when the two of them window shopped or went for crepes, the fashion bloggers and magazine photographers gave Ann that same kind of look just before they approached and asked for a photo. Sort of an appraising look that ended with raised eyebrows, sometimes a hint of a smile. Like they were impressed, but not by her intellect or her sparkling personality.

  
Futaba did not get that kind of look.

  
Now Ann grabbed her hand again and pulled her back to the present. "You still freeze up, huh?"

  
"Why waste my time talking to the giant guarding the gate when I just need to - "

  
_"Futabaaaa... "_ Ann threw back her head and groaned dramatically at the ceiling as they headed down the hallway to Ryuji's class. "When are you gonna give up the game metaphors? The, the fantasy names for everything?"

  
She knew Ann wasn't nearly as exasperated with her as she was pretending. This was just one of her favourite things to grouse at her about. Futaba fell into their same old squabble, the one they'd picked up every few days for months now that they'd started spending more time together. "Oh, like you're so _unaware._ You're on my friends list for like half a dozen of those fantasy gacha games, you know. I can _see_ you playing them every night - "

  
They picked up Ryuji from his classroom without missing a single word of their back and forth. He rolled his eyes when he realized what they were talking about, but waited patiently for his turn in their conversation as they stood in line for the school store.

  
Ann made excuses. "I'm just gonna play until I get that alt outfit for my catgirl knight. You know, the one with - "

  
"The blue hair and - you mean Amelia, right?!" Normally Ann would have put her off a little longer - maybe even tried to deny liking the games that Futaba knew she sank hours into, just to wind her up. Judging by the way she was drawing stares from the other students in the line, she must have let her volume get too high again. She tried to get it back under control as she stumbled over her words. "Do - do you mean the red and black outfit that comes up to here - " She gestured to her thigh. " - or like, the real sexy one with the - "

  
Ryuji timed his entry into their well-worn conversation perfectly. "You wouldn't know sexy if it bit you in the ass. Little anime girls with big heads n' no tits ain't _sexy,_ Futaba. Even if they are in fuckin' lingerie."

  
This was the cue for her and Ann to attack him until he either laughed and admitted defeat or until a teacher noticed, whichever came first. Ann was on her game and started messing with his hair, but Futaba was still thrown off by the change to their routine and missed her chance to pummel him. "Ann, back me up here. Amelia's summer event outfit is sexy, right?"

  
Ann usually sided with her when they butted heads with Ryuji, but to Futaba's surprise, she shook her head this time. "You always think the slightest bit of skin showing is sexy. Or anything tight." She bowed her head down to Futaba's level and leaned close to lower her voice, and Ryuji followed suit. "Remember riding the Monabus last year? Ryuji, every second word out of her mouth was 'sexy' or 'kinky' or whatever."

  
His whole face lit up. He'd gotten used to being their punching bag, a role he'd taken on amicably enough. He even encouraged them, especially Futaba, laying out the perfect bait until she couldn't hold back any longer and just had to set him straight on whatever point he was so, _so_ wrong about that particular day. But Ann was on his side on this one, and he wasn't going to miss his chance to rub it in. "Uh, _yeah,_ I remember. I sat right behind her most of the time. You shoulda seen her starin', she was like - " He widened his eyes and peered wildly from side to side, craning his neck to see over an imaginary seat in front of him.

  
Her blood was _boiling._ "If - if you knew what your _bodysuit_ did you'd know why I was staring, moron!"

  
Ann had her finger on her lips in a 'shush' gesture. Futaba saw it but ignored it completely.

  
"How could you be starin' at _me_ if I was sittin' behind you?"

  
All she could think of was wiping that stupid grin off of his face. "In the _bus,_ sure. But in _battle,_ I had my cameras. I had multiple angles of your - your stupid skintight bodysuit, filling up my screens. You think that thing left anything to the imagination? Once you got bouncing around a bit, it pulled up, and, and all I could _see_ was your ass and your junk in my _face - "_

  
They were both ready to throttle her. The lineup ahead and behind them had gone dead silent.

  
Ann gave her a big grin that showed all her teeth, the kind of grin that meant the opposite of happy. "Voluuuume... "

  
Futaba glared at the floor. It'd be nice if she could go a whole day, just once, without wishing she'd never left her room.

  
\----------

  
Lunch was awkward, because she was awkward. Ann did her best to fix things, because that was how she was. "Futaba, you want a bite of my jam bread?"

  
She shook her head without ever lifting her eyes from her phone, even though she couldn't really focus on it.

  
"Then... could I have a bite of your curry?"

  
Normally she liked sharing her food with Ann. Ann always put on a big dumb show as she ate it, like it was the best thing she'd ever tasted, even if it was just a bite of onigiri or the same curry they'd both had a hundred times before. But this time she couldn't trust herself to not open her mouth and say the wrong thing. Her face was still burning up, so she hid behind her phone and said nothing.

  
Ann gave up and picked up her own phone. Then Ryuji picked up his. It didn't take a genius to tell from their body language and the little looks they gave each other, and the little looks that they were definitely _not_ giving her, that they were talking about her behind her back. Right in _front_ of her back. Whatever.

  
She shovelled down the last of her curry and spent the rest of the lunch break hiding in the bathroom.

  
\----------

  
ANN: are you gonna talk to me or what?  
FUTABA: :/  
ANN: Futaba  
ANN: come on  
FUTABA: That was me talking.  
FUTABA: This way I can't embarrass you guys, right?

  
Her face heated up all over again as she sat at her desk in her classroom during the afternoon break. She wasn't being fair, and Ann wasn't the one she was really mad at. But if Ann wanted her to talk, this was what she was going to get.

  
ANN: it's not even a thing. you just gotta watch your volume, that's all

  
FUTABA: So like I said. You're both embarrassed to be seen with me.  
ANN: uh, well. if you really wanna know, I overheard a guy from Ryuji's class asking if you were his girlfriend

  
She cradled her face in her forearms on top of her desk and willed her body to dissolve into the floor. The school would for sure have to send her home if that happened.

  
ANN: don't worry. he said no  
FUTABA: Of course he did.  
FUTABA: I'm sure he yelled it real loud so everyone could hear how much I wasn't his girlfriend.  
ANN: ?  
ANN: you don't  
ANN: like Ryuji, do you?  
FUTABA: No I don't like Ryuji. What is wrong with you?  
FUTABA: Didn't you hear him?  
FUTABA: Little girls with no tits aren't sexy, remember?

  
The warning bell rang overhead.

  
ANN: he was talking about anime girls or something  
ANN: like, chibis. game sprites  
ANN: Futaba, I'll come get you after school. let's go do something

  
She let the seconds spin out until the last bell rang so she wouldn't have to answer. Then she put her phone away.

  
\----------

  
By the time Ann swung by her classroom on the third floor after the final bell rang, her anger had dissipated. Now she just felt sort of... empty.

  
Ann walked with her all the way to the train station, otherwise leaving her alone. Usually she'd be talking her ear off right about now. It was weird. And Ryuji hung out with them after school more often than not, but today he was nowhere in sight.

  
Then she remembered how she'd acted in their chat. Ann hadn't deserved that. "U-um. Ann. You wanna come to my house? We can watch Featherman."

  
Featherman was more her thing than Ann's. Ann had probably grown out of it, though she was always too polite to say so. But she gave her a smile anyway. It wasn't her model smile - Futaba had seen that one when she'd posed for the occasional photographers in Harajuku, and this one was prettier than that, as far as she was concerned. "Yeah, let's go!"

  
\----------

  
Futaba flung herself onto her bed, where Ann was already stretched out on her side. Ann had hung up her blazer by the front door and unzipped her white varsity hoodie but left it on, showing a bit of her black tank underneath. She flinched as Futaba nearly meleed her. "H-hey - "

  
"Shove over then!"

  
"You _said_ you wanted to watch Featherman - "

  
"Yeah, well. Now I just wanna stretch out for a minute." She'd already changed out of her Shujin uniform - torn it off, balled it up and drilled it into the closet like a star pitcher, actually, while Ann was still busy fussing with her shoes at the front door. It was the first thing she did every day after getting home. When Sojiro praised her for being so brave for getting herself to school every morning without even needing to be escorted, she still felt warm inside to hear it. But it didn't change how she felt about the uniform by the time she got home.

  
Ann wriggled her hips until she was as far to the side as she could get to let Futaba lay down too. "I know what you mean. When I get home I go straight to my room to stretch out too."

  
Futaba took off her glasses and set them aside so she could lie face down on her pillow. Sometimes it felt like Ann could see too much, more than she'd like her to. So she hid instead. "Yeah," she mumbled.

  
A heavy silence descended. They were usually both chatty when they were alone together, and Ann had been to her room several times before, so it wasn't that.

  
Futaba scowled into her pillow. She could feel it coming, like an elite mob on the very edge of the map. They weren't going to talk. They were going to Talk.

  
But Ann surprised her. She didn't speak, but she did start petting her hair.

  
She relaxed into her touch immediately. Ann always knew just when she needed it. Maybe Akira had told her about the time she'd asked him to start laying his hand on top of her head. Not often, of course. Just sometimes. He'd always done just that - patted her, then left his hand there until the top of her head felt warm - but Ann focused more on her hair. Ann started at the top, then let her long, straight hair fall through her fingers in the gentlest combing motion, as if it were the wind playing with it instead of a person. It made the silence a little better.

  
She screwed up her courage and started up the Talk herself, for once. "Sorry I'm weird."

  
The correct answer, in Futaba's opinion, was to say something to the contrary, something like, 'Aw, you're not weird, Futaba.' But Ann never did. Every time it came up, she responded the same way. "That's okay." She traced the tips of her nails over Futaba's scalp with the lightest possible pressure, then ran her fingers through her hair all the way to the end. "There's worse things than being weird."

  
"Well. Sorry I embarrassed you, then."

  
"You didn't."

  
"Then... "

  
"Ryuji might've been. A little. Actually, no. I dunno if it's possible to embarrass him. I think he just wasn't prepared to hear all about his junk at school."

  
Now Ann was _laughing_ at her. Her entire body flushed hot and she suddenly couldn't stand to have her face covered any longer, so she leapt upright, slapped the lights off and was back on the bed in a second. This time she laid down on her side, facing away from Ann even in the dark.

  
"You don't have to _hide._ Come on. "

  
"You don't have to laugh at me _either - "_

  
Ann just went back to playing her nails over the top of her head and through her hair until she shivered. If it weren't for the kind of day she'd had, she could have fallen asleep. She had in the past, while Ann was doing this.

  
"I wish... I wish I could talk," Futaba muttered.

  
"You can talk to me and Ryuji just fine."

  
"You _know_ what I mean, Panther, I'm talking about everyone _else,"_ she snapped.

  
Sometimes it just slipped out. Probably just because she'd said everyone's code names the most out of anyone while she'd been their navigator last year. Or maybe it was just because she still thought about how things had felt in the Metaverse constantly. They'd been in danger practically all the time, and it wasn't like everything had always gone right for them. But it was easy to romanticize how it had felt to struggle forward with her team when her day to day life now was so much... less.

  
Ann and Ryuji seemed to understand, and didn't bother correcting her if they went back to being called Panther and Skull now and then.

  
"Don't worry about Ishikawa. That guy in my class, at the door, I mean," Ann clarified. "He just looks scary."

  
"I'm not worried about him, he's a _challenge."_ Futaba grinned in the dark. "I'm just underlevelled right now, that's all."

  
Ann made a disgusted noise behind her, like she was fed up with her, then abruptly changed the subject. "How do you even _sleep_ in here, anyway? It never gets dark with all these computer lights. And then you've got a light in your mini fridge, and glow in the dark junk everywhere - "

  
"I like them." Both the lights and the sound of the PC fans and the mini fridge were nice, actually. Sort of comforting.

  
Ann wasn't really listening to her. "If you don't care about not being able to talk to Ishikawa, then who do you wish you could talk better to?"

  
"Just... y'know. People," Futaba finished lamely.

  
"Got your eye on a cute nerdy boy in your class?" Just what she'd been worried about. Ann didn't need to have the lights on to see inside her head after all.

  
"Not exactly."

  
"Got your eye on a _bunch_ of cute nerdy boys in your class?"

  
She'd better speak up soon or Ann was just going to make it worse and worse. The fact that she managed to get so close to the truth without even trying was bad enough. Futaba's voice went high as she blurted out, "Okay, there's these three guys - four guys - they are _not_ cute, okay?! - and they sit a row over from me, right? And two of them are about to build PCs, but they are just _beyond_ clueless. They're gonna waste all their money on crap parts - _overpriced_ crap parts - that're about to be out of date, like, six weeks from now - six _days_ from now - and it sounds like they don't even know what they wanna get out of their rigs. Like, why would you even _start_ if you don't even - and then the other two guys - "

  
Now Ann was half laughing, half sobbing fake tears. "No more, no moooore - no more nerd talk - save it for your nerdy boys - "

  
"I _would,_ if I knew how to talk to them! Apparently if I try to talk to a guy at school, I, I just wind up yelling about his _junk_ being in my face - " Now this was a true sign of progress. Sometimes she felt like crawling into her closet and never coming back out again, and then she'd wonder if any of her efforts had made a lasting difference. If any of Akira's and the other Thieves' efforts had made a difference, for that matter. But now she knew without a doubt. This time last year, she'd never have been able to laugh at herself, at least.

  
Ann was taken by surprise too. She choked out a laugh behind her and started giggling in earnest. "Y-yeah, Futaba - what the hell was _that_ about - "

  
"I didn't even tell him about how I used to _save_ that footage - "

  
She let out a horrified wail. "Noooo... " Then she sat up abruptly, sounding shocked. "Futaba, you know why he really wasn't embarrassed? Like, why he didn't mind that you said that in front of everyone?"

  
"No - "

  
"I just realized - I think he was _flattered._ He thought you were _complimenting_ him - " Ann flopped back down to the bed and started giggling again.

  
"Oh. That's fine. I guess I was. Kinda."

  
Dead silence. It went on for long enough that Futaba finally rolled over, just enough to see behind her. It was dark, so she had to fumble her glasses back on before she could tell, but she realized that Ann had both of her hands covering her mouth. When she spoke, she left her hands where they were, muffling her voice. "You compliment a guy with 'your junk was in my face'?!"

  
"No, I said - I said - okay, you guys were making fun of me, right, and he said I _stared_ at everyone, so I told him... I told him I was staring at... him... " Uh oh.

  
Ann pointed her finger at her. "Nuh uh. You didn't say you were staring at him. You didn't _just_ say that, I mean. You said that after we started talking about what was 'sexy'. I said you were always going on about our Thief outfits being 'sexy' or 'kinky' and the next words out of your mouth were about how Ryuji looked in his bodysuit."

  
Between now and a year ago, she'd come far enough that rather than diving into her closet and slamming the door shut, she just pictured herself doing it instead. But it was a close thing. She settled for rolling away from Ann again and curling into a ball, knees to her chest. "I - I didn't mean that!"

  
"So you _don't_ think Ryuji is sexy?" Ann teased.

  
_"No,_ because I have _eyes - "_

  
"Yeah? What'd you do with that footage of him in his bodysuit that you saved last year, huh?" Ann's voice was quaking with suppressed laughter now. "Kept it for a rainy day, I guess - "

  
She'd saved it. It was on a spare harddrive, thoroughly encrypted and hidden behind fake filenames. Sometimes it was better to keep a physical copy, separate from an internet connection, when it came to these things. She decided not to tell Ann about the backup she'd also made.

  
Ann had noticed her silence and started stroking her hair again. But she wasn't done. "I guess Yusuke's more your type." She was being _infuriating_ and she _knew it._ "You must like 'em long and noodley - "

  
_"W-what - "_ She couldn't tell if Ann was referring to his height or something else, and it threw her off. Ryuji was usually the one to trade dick jokes with her, and she could give it back as good as she got, but Ann could surprise her sometimes, too. She just wasn't sure if Ann had just gone there while talking about _Inari,_ of all people, and after the way she'd embarrassed herself at lunch, she didn't feel like going out on a limb to find out.

  
"You heard me!" That settled it. Ann _had_ just gone there.

  
"I-Inari's suit is too loose there. Was. And he didn't move in the right way to see anything, even if I kept my cameras set on him the whole time." His chest had been nice, though, and she did have some footage saved of him when the light had been good enough to see some sweat there, in the v-shaped opening left by the zipper of his suit. "Skull was the one who always had his legs wide open, in his skintight suit, like he _wanted_ me to friggin' look - "

  
He probably did, too. He'd caught her staring any number of times this year at school, when they hung out at lunch and after classes were over, and he always just shot her this big stupid grin. Sometimes he waggled his eyebrows at her, too.

  
_"You do like him - "_ Ann breathed. She sounded _ecstatic._

  
Usually her rage bar would max out at this point, and she'd have no choice but to blow up. It wasn't like she got to decide how the mechanics worked. But then she had a little moment of clarity. If she could just channel this into a special move, one that Ann wasn't expecting -

  
Futaba tried very hard to keep her tone casual. "I mean. Maybe. If I liked 'em long and noodley."

  
Ann scoffed. "Psht. Ryuji? His is all _veiny._ You wouldn't like it."

  
Futaba let herself smirk in the greenish dark, still facing away from Ann. She'd taken the bait. "How do you know I wouldn't like it?! Maybe veiny's my _thing._ Maybe I got folders and folders of veiny on my harddrive, and - "

  
She wanted to see where this went, maybe find out if Ann was basing this intel off of guesswork or actual experience, but Ann took it back to a place she liked less. "You're pretending like you're joking, but we both know it's truuuue - " she singsonged.

  
Ann was hardly one to talk when she'd been the one to bring up dick talk. Dick specifics, anyway. Futaba refused to be shamed. "The internet is full of wonders," she said stubbornly.

  
"Uh huh. Surprised you need it, when you've got - " Ann was laughing again. " - up close and personal footage of, of our boys - "

  
"Not that any of it's done me any good," she muttered.

  
Ann started to play with Futaba's hair now, gathering it all up at the back of her neck like they were playing hairdresser and then piling it up on top of her head. "Hmm?"

  
"Nothing."

  
"No, you definitely said _something."_ Ann turned off the jokey laughing tone all at once, like a tap, and now she was being nice. It was hard to say no. It was _always_ hard to say no to Ann.

  
Futaba kept her mouth sealed shut for long minutes until Ann dragged it out of her. She trailed her nails across the top of her head, threading her fingers through her hair, and Futaba knew she was doomed.

  
She gritted her teeth and finally spoke. "I can't."

  
"Can't what?" Ann wasn't pretending this time. She really didn't get it.

  
It wasn't her fault they were talking about this. It was Ann's. Ann 'long and noodley' Takamaki had brought this up, not her. "The footage. The - the stuff I watch on the internet. None of it works."

  
Ann's fingers had stopped while she was talking, but they started moving again once she had finished. Futaba wanted to be in her closet, _right now,_ and Ann's fingers in her hair were just about the only thing that kept her from just jumping off the bed and huddling on the floor in there right this second.

  
Ann left her hanging for a bit. Probably trying to figure out what to say. What _did_ you say to that? Futaba had no idea what she would have said, if their positions were reversed.

  
If Ann had made a joke just then, Futaba really would have buried herself in dirty clothes in her closet. Like a mole or something. But Ann didn't. She kept playing with her hair, and she just sounded sort of serious. "D'you seize up?"

  
Futaba was a little in love with her. Maybe. Like, 10% in love, probably. "Yeah!"

  
"Like you get stuck, and then you can't... get there?"

  
_"Exactly - "_

  
Ann gave her hair a tug, and got rid of the serious tone real quick. "Think we know why you're looking at Ryuji's junk all the time."

  
"Don't tease me." But she could take it, now that she knew Ann understood, and Ann knew that she could.

  
"You must be so... " She heard Ann blow out her breath all at once behind her, like she was deciding something. Her voice was quiet now. "It... happens. That."

  
"To you? Too?"

  
"Used to." Ann shifted a little on the mattress behind her. "Have you ever?"

  
Ugh. Now they were getting down to details. She closed her eyes and just spat the words out, all at once. "No I mean maybe I don't know how you know if you did or not - "

  
Ann laughed, that pretty, giggly sort of laugh she did when she was actually happy, not like when she was just being polite or laughing out of awkwardness. "Maybe you just haven't had a good one." Futaba felt Ann's hand creep up to her hip, where her white tshirt met her black shorts. "When it's good, your muscles go like - " And she rapidly grabbed and let go, grabbed and let go, at Futaba's hip, indicating... something.

  
She couldn't begin to imagine what that meant. "Did you ever... ?"

  
"Yeah, obviously." Ann laughed again.

  
When she'd zipped around in Necronomicon as Oracle, she could just talk right into the Thieves' heads, and they could do the same right back, somehow. It felt half like talking out loud and half like thinking, like _telepathy,_ and she wished it would just come back almost every day. It had felt so easy. "No, I meant. Like. With a guy."

  
It made her feel a bit better to hear Ann. She sounded embarrassed herself. "Well. Not - not all the way, no." She put her hand back on Futaba's hip, just resting it there now. "I'm too tall!"

  
"Uh, _what?"_ It was only a little funny - okay, maybe more than a little - but she laughed and laughed, and Ann joined in, until the tension in the room was gone.

  
"For boys, I mean. A lot of them, anyway." She made her fingers look like a little man, walking them up and down Futaba's hip. "They're so _obvious_ about it. You can see them measuring me, my height I mean, as they come up - " The little man walked up over the shallow curve of Futaba's hip. " - and then they get close, and I'm the same or taller, and then they get spooked and run away." The little man skittered back over Futaba's hip, slipping a little on the smooth material of her shorts.

  
Boys didn't approach Futaba to begin with, but she tried not to sound bitter about it. "Cowards!"

  
"Yeah! Like, I'd _date_ a short boy. If he'd _talk_ to me. But they all run off."

  
"They're just not used to dealing with amazons like you." Ann's hand was still flat on her hip, holding her there, and Futaba tried not to think about how warm she was getting.

  
Ann sighed. "You've got the advantage, you know."

  
She couldn't stop the incredulous snort she made.

  
"No, seriously. You can go tall _or_ short. Every guy's taller than you. You've got options."

  
Futaba made her voice as deep as she could. "I'll be your short boy, Ann-chan - " She rolled over, all at once, and gave Ann a big wet kiss on her bare shoulder, where her hoodie had pulled away and her black tank didn't cover.

  
Her heart was about to pop. Why did she _do_ that -

  
Ann saved her. Ann always saved her. "My hero, Futaba-kun!" she said, in this ridiculous half squeaky, half breathy voice. Ann probably meant for it to be a damsel in distress voice, some actress from a shitty movie, maybe, but to Futaba it sounded more like a porn actress's voice, thanks to her viewing habits. Luckily the dim lighting meant Ann shouldn't have been able to see the colour her face went.

  
Now, before Futaba knew it was going to happen, Ann was hugging her, and that did it. Futaba shook like a leaf in a windstorm. Ann always played with her hair, and she'd hugged her before, too, but that had just been a quick hi-I-haven't-seen-you-for-a-whole-week type thing. A quick grab and release thing, like what she'd done to her hip. This time, Ann folded both arms around her and yanked her forward, right up against her, and now her chin was resting right on Ann's chest. Her _cleavage._ And Ann just _left_ her there, too.

  
Ann's voice was her own again, but Futaba hadn't heard it like this before. Sort of - she quaked even harder - sort of sexy. Maybe. It was probably her imagination. "When'd you get so booby, Futaba-kun?"

  
She knew she was flat. She didn't even have to wear a bra, most of the time. _"Me?! You're_ the - the - "

  
"Yeah, yeah. Ryuji'd never let me forget I've got these things."

  
"You should have seen him back in our Thief days. He, he was ragging on _me_ about it, but - " The injustice of it made her clench her teeth, even now. " - he was just as bad. _Worse._ He'd be in the seat behind me on the Monabus, right, and he'd - "

  
Ann laughed and shifted a little, enveloping Futaba's face in her hair as well as her chest, now. "You think I didn't notice? Seriously?"

  
"He'd lean right over my shoulder. He used to just stare at you and drool, right out in the open."

  
She petted the back of Futaba's head while she hugged her, and with the way it made her feel, Futaba almost didn't catch what she said. "I meant _both_ of you... "

  
There was no way Ann didn't feel the level of heat her face was kicking off right now. "W-well. I think I flat out _told_ you your Panther suit was sexy. Right?"

  
"Uh, only like every _day_ \- every time we went to the Metaverse, at least - "

  
Futaba took small comfort in the fact that that was a sign of progress, too. At least these days she didn't go on and on about how sexy Ann was right out in the open, to her face, in front of half a dozen other people.

  
Except she kinda _did_ do that, today. Only it had been in front of half the school. And instead of Ann, she'd said it about _Ryuji._

  
And if she was going to keep getting better at being around people, she was going to have to go right back to school tomorrow and face him and everybody who had heard about what she'd said by now. She was safe in her room right now, but tomorrow... "Rgggh! Why am I so - " she muttered desperately. Her voice sounded funny, and Ann must have heard it, because she started rubbing her back instead of her hair.

  
"I was teasing you. Sorry."

  
"I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at _me!"_

  
Just like before, Ann paused for a long moment, then exhaled all at once. Like she was getting ready to do something. She spoke very carefully, her face angled up and away as she rested her chin on top of Futaba's head. "What, um. What have you tried?"

  
She could've pretended that she didn't get what Ann was talking about, but it would've been a lie, and Ann would've known it. She scrunched up her face against Ann's neck and just focused on getting the words out. "Porn... "

  
Ann laughed at her, something that always made her want to stomp her feet like a little kid, somehow. But then Ann started rubbing her back at the same time, and that helped. "I mean, I already knew _that._ I meant, like. What methods. Of. Um."

  
Ann couldn't say it either.

  
This was going to be the death of her. Or she'd need a pacemaker, maybe. Her heart was trying to jump right out. "M-my fingers... "

  
Ann whispered, "You don't have any toys?"

  
"How could I?! Sojiro would find them right away - he still cleans my room whether I want him to or not, ever since he found that calling card - "

  
"Maybe I'll get Akira to tell him that, um. That you're too old for that." Futaba was confused, until Ann explained, "Akira's braver than me. There's no way I could tell Boss a thing like that!"

  
The idea that Ann could be scared of anything while she was holding her and talking about _this_ just about made her laugh out loud. It was ridiculous.

  
Ann kept going, too. "And... did you ever google this? Like, what to do?"

  
"I just _told_ you I watch porn!" As if she needed to be told to google something. She felt insulted. But then her brain finally caught up all the way. "Waitwaitwait, _Akira?_ You are _not_ telling Akira - "

  
"I mean, I was gonna frame it to him differently - "

  
"Different _how?!"_

  
Apparently Ann didn't have anything in mind beyond that. "Okay fine, I won't tell him, but - "

  
Futaba was stuck a few steps behind again. Thinking of Akira made her think of how much better things had been when he'd still lived above the cafe, before his shitty family had dragged him home again.

  
Akira had been her key item. Last year, he'd given her the courage to work all the way through her promise list, and even though she'd known he couldn't stay forever, she'd come to rely on him.

  
It hadn't just been him though. It was the whole team.

  
Last year, after they'd rescued her from herself, she got to see Akira all the time at Leblanc. She'd tried to just head up to his room more than once before Sojiro had explained a few things to her about personal space, and the fact that Akira didn't have a door to knock on first.

  
But she got to see everybody in the Metaverse, too, and that was what had really helped convince her that there were things worth seeing outside of her room. And she was useful there. Not just useful but _integral._ Nobody else had a Persona like hers.

  
And it wasn't just Necronomicon and, later, Prometheus. Her hacking skills had come in handy constantly while they were stealing hearts. It was like everything she'd been working so hard on in her room for the last few years finally got noticed, and on top of that, it was by all of her favourite people.

  
But now it was all gone. No more skintight Oracle suit. Just a Shujin uniform, so she could look the same as everyone else. No more infiltrations. Now she came home and did her homework, or played phone games.

  
No more Akira. They chatted all the time, but only in quick little blurbs of text. Not much of substance. He had more going on than she did, probably. It wouldn't be hard.

  
Ann had just said something she hadn't heard. "Huh?"

  
"Where'd you go?" Ann raised her hand in a loose fist and bonked the top of her head with her knuckles.

  
"I just - I was just... " She squeezed Ann tight and lowered her face. "I miss him." But that wasn't the whole truth. "I miss all of it!"

  
She always knew Ann was special. She got exactly what she meant. "Yeah, we went from the Metaverse to just - "

  
"Just _school - "_

  
"I was getting so good with my whip, too," she pouted. "Do you think I could still do it? If I found a real one?"

  
"Maybe." Memories of Ann cracking her whip down on Shadows in her sexy Panther suit made her want to hide her face, but if she moved any closer she'd just be hiding it in what had her all overheated in the first place.

  
She really did have her chin in Ann's cleavage right this second. They kept talking about unrelated things, so she'd forgotten, but it was still right there. She shut her eyes tight.

  
And thinking of Ann's Metaverse outfit made her think of her own. She'd loved it right from the start. It made her look sneaky and smart, like a hacker should, but there were little athletic touches, too, like the knee and elbow pads and the thick soled boots. She'd never felt athletic before, not once in her life. But when she was Oracle, she'd felt like she could do anything.

  
"I bet Oracle could frickin' come," she muttered darkly.

  
Something about what she'd said sent Ann into peals of laughter, and instead of pushing Futaba away, she pulled her closer, if anything. Now her cleavage was _moving,_ right in her _face -_

  
Futaba squeaked and rolled all the way over, facing away from Ann again. She curled into a ball and tried to calm down.

  
Ann was trying to get her breath back, still giggling. "I b-bet she could, yeah."

  
Ann's voice made her relax. A little bit, at least. Ann wasn't embarrassed to talk about this with her, and she didn't tell Futaba she was being gross, or inappropriate. She especially hated hearing that last one. But Ann was just talking to her about the Metaverse and boys and - and _this,_ like all of it was okay.

  
Futaba sighed and relaxed out of the tight ball she'd pulled herself into. "I bet - I bet Panther never has to be lonely."

  
"Yeah. That's a much nicer way to say it than Ryuji ever did."

  
"Yeah, well. Skull's short for Numbskull. We know that."

  
Ann was getting into it, this weird little scenario that had sprung up. "Who do you think Panther hangs out with?"

  
"Oracle," she said immediately. That one was easy. "And Panther lets Skull come too. But that's just her toying with him. It's a plot."

  
"Oooh, like a villainess!" Ann was all in.

  
"Yeah, definitely. There's no way Panther's a do gooder or whatever. Do gooders don't dress like _that."_

  
The bed shifted, and Ann's voice was a little closer. "Totally." It sounded like she was trying to peer at something in the darkness, over by where Futaba kept her figures. Then she laid down again, closer than before. "Do gooders dress like the Feathermen. Even their _faces_ are covered."

  
Futaba was thrilled. Ann really _was_ a fan still, just like her, or she wouldn't think about this stuff. _"Yeah,_ and their suits're tight but it's _good guy_ tight. You can't even see anything. But the villainesses - "

  
"Aw, none of them dress like Panther, though."

  
Futaba let out an evil laugh. "That must mean Panther's the _worst."_

  
"Bet she leads Skull around like a puppy dog."

  
"Yup. No one can resist Panther's - Panther's _feminine wiles."_

  
They both laughed, this time, and while Futaba was still caught up in it, she felt Ann's arm circle around her waist from behind her.

  
Her face was going to start on fire any second.

  
Ann was close enough to murmur in her ear. "So, um. How come Oracle can?" 'And you can't?' was left unspoken.

  
Pretending this was all Metaverse talk, and that it was happening to someone named Oracle and not to someone named Futaba, made it all easier. "Oracle's _confident._ Oracle - Oracle doesn't get _embarrassed,_ either. She can do anything."

  
Another pretty laugh in her ear. But not like Ann was making fun of her. "What's embarrassing about it?"

  
"W-what if someone _heard_ me? What if - "

  
"Just do it when Boss isn't here."

  
"Sure, but." Ann was making perfect sense, and Futaba wasn't, but it still didn't solve the problem.

  
"It still feels embarrassing? Even if no one's around?" Ann pulled her tighter, and now Futaba could tell she was pressed up close behind her, impossibly soft.

  
"Yeah." She sounded all pouty herself now, but she couldn't help it.

  
Ann flattened her palm over Futaba's stomach and stroked her there, through her white tshirt. "Panther looks like she knows all about that stuff, doesn't she."

  
This was getting into some very strange territory. "Y-yeah. Panther fucks."

  
Ann made an ugly snort in her ear as she tried not to laugh, and was only half successful. Futaba felt even warmer. She was good at making Ann laugh.

  
Now Ann had this low voice. It did funny things to Futaba's stomach, just below where Ann's hand was. "D'you think Oracle's a villain too? A villainess?"

  
"Yes - " she said quickly. "But, like. Not a terrible one. A grey hat more often than a black hat. And she might work with the good guys. But only sometimes."

  
"D'you think - " And now Ann's hand was moving, moving down, until her fingers were playing with the waistband of her black shorts through the fabric of her tshirt. " - that she'd team up with Panther? Sometimes?"

  
"Yes - " she squeaked.

  
"Oracle - " She heard Ann's voice shake a little behind her, and now she was more than 10% in love with her. Ann was all nervous about this _too,_  and she wasn't as confident as her Metaverse self  _either,_ but she was doing it anyway. For her. "Um. Would Oracle be too embarrassed to accept some help from Panther?"

  
"An assist?"

  
"Yeah. An assist."

  
She tried to keep it together, but her voice quavered all over the place anyway. "Y-yeah. I mean, no. I think - I think she'd want to try. Oracle would want to... try."

  
All she could hear was Ann's breath in her ear, quick little puffs of air that stirred her hair. Her fingers crept lower and lower until they met Futaba's thighs, and Futaba straightened her legs to let her go where she wanted. Ann's nails were a pretty, shimmery pink today, though they sparkled green in the near dark.

  
Ann started rubbing between her legs, and it felt so good that Futaba forgot to breathe.

  
She noticed, of course, as close as she was. "You gotta relax!"

  
Futaba nodded desperately, not trusting her voice, and squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn't have to see where Ann was putting her hand.

  
She was gentle. She brushed her lightly through her shorts, in front where it was easy to reach and further below, too, until Futaba bent her knee and planted her toes on the mattress to prop up her top leg. Now Ann could reach everything, and she _did,_ she was touching every _inch_ of her there -

  
Her panties and her shorts were soaked right through, and had been for a while. And Ann must have felt it. Futaba covered her face with both hands, slammed her legs shut and pulled up her knees again. Access denied.

  
"Aw. We don't have to, Futaba." Ann pulled away behind her until they weren't touching anymore, though she did start playing with her hair again. Just long strokes of her nails, all the way from Futaba's scalp down to the ends.

  
Ann was so nice.

  
"I - I _want_ to - _Oracle_ wants to, but - "

  
"Embarrassing, right?"

  
_"Yes,_ this is _so_ embarrassing - " Futaba groaned through clenched teeth.

  
Ann kept her fingers moving through her hair. "Maybe, um. Maybe Panther could help by... " And this time she was too embarrassed herself to even finish.

  
Her head was a PvP zone. One side wanted to cringe right out of existence and the other side wanted to keep going, no matter what. She rolled over to look at Ann in the dark. "What?"

  
Ann just looked at her in the greenish dark that wasn't actually that dark at all, with all the glow in the dark stuff and the lights from her equipment. What Futaba had always thought of as a friendly sort of dark. Just like the interiors of Necronomicon and Prometheus.

  
Ann looked nervous, and she didn't say anything. Instead she rolled onto her back and let her hand rest on her belly, where the black tank met the waistband of her Shujin skirt. While Futaba watched, she moved her hand lower, just an inch or so.

  
Oh. Futaba smiled at her. "Yeah, maybe - maybe Panther just needs to show her how it's done."

  
Ann smiled back and started unzipping her skirt.

  
Futaba couldn't get over how brave Ann was. She was really doing this. She was really lying on her bed and taking off her clothes, so that - Uh. Something new occurred to her. "A-are you a lesbian?"

  
Ann giggled at her and switched tracks, sitting up to shrug out of her white hoodie instead. "We were just talking about _dicks,_ remember?"

  
"Well, okay. Are you bi, then?"

  
Ann carefully threw her hoodie over Futaba so that it hung on the back of her computer chair. Then she shrugged and grinned. "You?"

  
"M-maybe." It was one of those things that was a sort of empty staticky zone in her brain. A question mark sort of area. Part of the map that hadn't been explored yet.

  
"Don't let Ryuji know or you'll never hear the end of it."

  
"Why?"

  
"He's such a _guy."_ Ann stretched out in her black tank and skirt and wiggled her toes at the end of the bed. "He'd ask you which girls you think are hot at school or whatever. He'd - he'd wanna take pictures of you kissing me or something."

  
Ann was laughing, and Futaba joined in, but she thought privately that talking to Ryuji about those sorts of things didn't sound so bad. Kissing Ann, too.

  
"Anyway." Ann had her thumbs hooked in the waistband of her uniform skirt, already unzipped. "This is - this is okay? You think Panther should... ?"

  
Futaba laid on her side and got comfortable next to Ann on the narrow bed. She curled her fingers in front of her eyes, adjusting imaginary goggles, and nodded firmly. "Go ahead, Panther. Oracle's recording."

  
"Don't _record_ me - " Ann squealed, but she was grinning. She lifted her hips and shoved her skirt down to her knees.

  
She wore the plainest black bikini cut panties imaginable. They could have been from the drug store, sold in packages of five, for crying out loud.

  
"Those are - ?!" Futaba asked hotly and pointed right at them. "How can you be a _model_ and wear - and wear - _those?!_ Where's your lace? Where's your thong?!"

  
Ann's mouth was in a little o of indignation, her eyebrows pulled down. "Sh-shut up!"

  
"Where is your _pride - "_

  
"Thongs aren't comfortable!" Ann snapped. "And I didn't know anyone was gonna _see_ them today! And - and let's see what _you_ have on, huh?!"

  
The tables had turned, and Futaba didn't like it one bit. "Maybe if you're _nice."_

  
Ann was still a shitty actress. She put one hand on her chest and gasped like she had pearls to clutch. "When am I not nice?!"

  
Futaba grinned and raised herself up on one elbow. "When you're Panther."

  
She had her there. Ann's mouth opened and shut. "W-well, yeah - " And then it was like she figured out how to turn things to her advantage, just like how Panther would have. She put her evil face on, all curved lips and diabolical eyebrows. "Alright then, _Oracle._ I can be _nice._ If it gets me what I want. "

  
Ann reached out and closed the very few inches that separated them. She settled her thumb on Futaba's shorts, in just the right spot, and stroked her there in slow circles. Futaba sank down until she was stretched out on her side again and just let her. "That does feel really nice," she admitted.

  
"Panther knows all about this stuff. Right?" Ann didn't speed up or slow down or press harder. She just kept up what she was doing with her thumb, like she was prepared to be patient.

  
"Right." And maybe it was just a patience thing. Every time that Futaba had attempted this, alone in her room, she'd had the time it took on her mind. Shouldn't she have come by now? Was this how it was supposed to feel? Was she doing it right? Porn didn't really help answer the feeling part of it.

  
Then Ann took her hand away.

  
Futaba made a disappointed noise and thrust her hips in Ann's direction.

  
Ann had the most obnoxious grin on her face. "Unh unh! You said it felt nice!"

  
"Yeah, _and?"_

  
"We made a deal, Futaba. Oracle, I mean. A deal between villains."

  
Oh. They sort of had. She was stuck. She jumped off the bed and got ready to push her shorts down. "D-don't look!"

  
Ann theatrically slapped one hand over her eyes. Futaba got it over with as quickly as possible and settled in on her side again, next to Ann.

  
"Cute!"

  
Futaba gulped. That hadn't been so bad. Ann hadn't given her the gears like she had to her when their positions had been reversed. "Thanks." Today she'd worn black panties too, just like Ann, but hers were boyshorts with neon green piping up the sides. The exact same colours as her Oracle suit in the Metaverse had been.

  
Ann knew just what the colours meant, too. She really was too perceptive. "Well, now I do feel bad." She looked at her own black cotton panties. "If I'd have known we were supposed to have come in costume, I'd have worn my red lacies."

  
"Oooh - "

  
This time Ann didn't laugh, or giggle. She threw back her head and _cackled_. "Oh my _god,_ Ryuji makes that _same_ face when I wear them - that same _noise,_ too - "

  
"I knew it!" Futaba bellowed.

  
"W-what - "

  
"You guys _do_ fuck!"

  
Futaba yelling in her face had interrupted her cackling, but now Ann picked it back up and doubled it. "S-so what - " she barely got out between giggles.

  
"You - you were all over _me_ about it - you were all, 'ohhh, _Futaba,_ you think Ryuji is _sexy?_ Dur hur hur' but you - _you - "_

  
"That was a _terrible_ impression."

  
"Don't change the subject, _Panther!"_

  
Ann still couldn't keep a straight face. She kept going all wiggly at the mouth. But she tried. "Yeah. Ryuji and I mess around sometimes. Still."

  
The humour drained out of Futaba, all at once. "You guys could've told me," she said quietly.

  
"Aw, it's not - it's not a thing. We don't even talk about it. It's not like we were _trying_ not to tell you or anything."

  
Futaba had screwed up worse than she'd thought. "I'm - I'm sorry I talked about your boyfriend's junk at school."

  
Ann rolled towards her all at once, blonde hair flying. She yanked Futaba into a hard hug and let her go. "He's not. Don't worry." She grinned. "He liked it, anyway."

  
Now they were both lying on their sides, face to face. Futaba gulped and closed her eyes, and Ann picked up where she'd left off. She stroked her through her panties with her fingertips, fleeting little touches that made something deep in her abdomen come awake.

  
Ann kept it up for a long time, long enough for Futaba to have forgotten all the awkwardness from before. She kept her eyes closed and felt herself get wetter and wetter.

  
"Hey, Oracle."

  
Futaba opened her eyes, realizing with a start just how long she'd made poor Ann keep going. But she didn't look impatient. Ann just looked happy. "Panther?"

  
"If you want me to show you how, we're going to have to make some wardrobe adjustments." She snapped the waist of Futaba's panties.

  
The idea of being any degree of _naked_ next to Ann hit her like a paralysis spell. "I - I thought _you_ were going to show me f-first - "

  
Ann sighed like she was annoyed, but it was an act. Futaba saw right through it. "If I must." She sat up again and pulled at the bottom hem of her tank, then stopped. "Uh. Boss is still gonna be a while, right?"

  
"Yeah, we got hours. And I have alarms that go off in here when he gets through the front door, too."

  
Ann had to shake her head at that, clearly impressed by her ingenuity. Then she fell into her villainess act again. _"So,_ Oracle. It seems you have me in your clutches once again."

  
"Even the mighty Panther cannot withstand my greatest invention! My - my clothing dissolver!"

  
They both snorted at that line. Pretty dumb. Ann pretended to shield her chest and her crotch while cowering. "Oh noooo - " Then she sat up straight and yanked her black tank over her head, then tossed it right over Futaba to join her hoodie on the office chair.

  
Her bra was much cuter than her plain panties. It was an aqua underwire with something sparkly where the cups met in the middle. Sequins or rhinestones or something. Still not the lacy lingerie Futaba had been picturing, but undeniably cute. "Does Ryuji like this one?"

  
Ann shrugged. "Dunno. This one's for me, not for him." Her face snapped back to the exaggerated anguish face she'd had on a minute ago. Apparently the clothing dissolver was painful, too. "Aggggh - " She reached behind her back to undo her bra and added it to the pile of clothing on the chair without even hesitating.

  
Ann sat there, topless, leaning back on her hands and looking a thousand times more comfortable than Futaba felt with most of her clothing still on.

  
She couldn't tear her eyes away. "Panther, you're... " Beautiful. Sexy. Everything Futaba wasn't.

  
Maybe Ann got what she meant. Some if it, anyway. She leaned close - she brought _all_ of her close, like she'd never had an awkward day in her life, like none of this was out of the ordinary for her - and kissed Futaba on the cheek. "You've seen _boobs,_ Futaba."

  
"Mine don't count."

  
Ann stuck out her tongue and smiled. "I wouldn't know. I've never seen them."

  
She'd have to try harder than _that._ Futaba pretended to hold something like a ray gun, but big enough to need both hands. A ray rifle. A ray cannon. She pointed it at Ann's lap. "Any last words, Panther?"

  
"Oracle, you madman - mad _woman_ \- you _can't_ \- nooooo - " Ann made an inhuman wail, much more convincing than any of her previous attempts at acting, and had her panties off before Futaba could blink.

  
There she was. Ann was all the way naked, right there on her bed. All except for her black thigh highs, which just added to the effect, in Futaba's humble opinion. She adjusted her glasses and stared until even Ann started to fidget.

  
Ann put on her villainess face again. The conniving grin, the eyes narrowed to slits. Then she did some kind of complicated flipping motion between the two of them with her hands, something Futuaba couldn't figure out until Ann spoke again. Apparently she'd stolen the clothing dissolver. "It would seem that _two_ can play at that game, _Oracle!"_ A baffling series of noises came out of her mouth until Futaba realized what she was trying to do.

  
"A-Ann, _stop_ \- h-holy shit - " She sniggered. "Haven't you ever heard a villain laugh? A villainess laugh? It's 'mwahaha' - "

  
"Sure, or - " Ann just made more freaky noises with her head tipped back and the back of her hand held up to her mouth. She _looked_ the part, but -

  
"That sounds like _barking - "_

  
A snooty sniff. She must be the rich and haughty kind of villainess. "A panther would never _bark._ And - a-anyway, I have you in my sights!" She leveled the invisible device at Futaba's chest. "Psheeew!"

  
That sound effect wasn't what Futaba would have chosen, but it was closer than Ann's laugh at least. She writhed and groaned in pretend pain until she nearly fell off the bed. "Grugggh... "

  
Ann kicked her. "Quit _stalling,_ drama queen."

  
Fair was fair. Ann had pointed the clothing dissolver at Futaba's chest, so she shrugged and pulled her white tshirt over her head, then tossed it onto the floor. No big hardship, since she still had her black cami on underneath. Her nipples were hard and pointing through the fabric, though she hoped it was too dark for Ann to see them.

  
Apparently just the tshirt was enough to satisfy Ann, though. She settled on her back, her knees up, and tried to give Futaba enough room to stretch out on her back too. But the bed was just too small. "Come here, then," Ann said softly. It was her nicest voice. She patted her own shoulder, and Futaba understood.

  
Ann stretched out her arm to welcome her, and Futaba laid her head down on her shoulder. She was quaking again, and now she had no way to hide it, right up against Ann like she was. Ann just reached over and grabbed her wrist, then pulled until Futaba's arm was stretched right across her naked belly.

  
Futaba could see everything.

  
"You're really - we're really - "

  
Ann picked up Futaba's hand and put it on her bare breast. "If you want to." She smiled.

  
She did. "Teach me, Panther. Then - then I'll consider releasing you." She stroked Ann's nipple with her fingertips and wished she really did still have Oracle's recording capabilities.

  
For all their talk, Ann was still a little nervous to start. "Um, so." Her hand, the one not wrapped around Futaba's back, crept across her own belly. But then it fell dead. "I usually just - you know. I do what I was doing to you. I mean, that's what I did before I bought toys, at least."

  
Not just _a_ toy. Toys, plural. "Maybe - m-maybe I just need to shell out for some toys, then? Is that all it is?"

  
"Well. I sorta think the embarrassment thing you told me about means you wouldn't get your money's worth."

  
She had Ann here, naked, in her bed. She was being stupid. Futaba mustered all her courage and wriggled against Ann until she got her own panties halfway down and kicked them away, lost to the darkness of her room. This was the kind of raid you had to run naked. "I - I - I usually just rub my c-clit, like this, and - "

  
She suddenly felt very chilly, out in the open like this.

  
Ann moved over even farther until Futaba could lay flat on her back, but now they were just a jumbled mess of limbs. No one was comfortable. Ann sat upright and made a frustrated noise, then let out all her breath in a long sigh, like she'd decided something again. "Can - can I show you? Can I just - " She laid her hand on Futaba's leg, down by her knee, but that wasn't where she was looking.

  
Somehow she'd thought Ann was going to touch herself and she was just going to learn by watching. This was something else. But her mind was made up. "Um. Okay," she said in a tiny voice.

  
Ann laid on top of her and warmed her right up.

  
Her blonde hair fell all around Futaba's face in curtains. Ann kept herself upright with her knees and elbows, but everywhere else, Ann was pressed up against her. In some places, skin to skin. "We're really - ?!" Futaba squeaked.

  
Ann just laughed in her ear this time. She lowered her face over Futaba's shoulder and inched her right hand between them until she'd zeroed in on her target.

  
Futaba sighed and finally relaxed.

  
"Lemme know what you like, Oracle."

  
"Okay," she whispered.

  
Ann's began to move her fingers, circling Futaba's clit with the pad of her thumb. Slow and steady again, but not hard. Then Ann's index finger brushed her lower, tickling, until she slipped just her fingertip inside -

  
"You're _wet!"_

  
"W-why wouldn't I be?! You've been teasing me for, like, hours - " Probably had something to do with the fact that she had a beautiful naked girl on top of her, too, but who could say. "And _you're wet too, Panther - "_

  
"Hm." Ann was shameless. Instead of checking with her hand, she just writhed around a little on top of Futaba until she made contact with one of Futaba's bare thighs and confirmed it. "Yeah, guess I am."

  
"Gee, thanks for the snail trail - "

  
_"Ewww - "_ But Ann was laughing hard enough for Futaba to feel her belly quivering against hers. "O-okay, lesson one. No, um. Advanced lesson. For later. For - for when you're on a date with one of your nerdy boys. 'Never say that again.' Think you can remember that?"

  
Futaba had forgotten all about the boys in her class. They could have been on another planet for all she cared. "Aw, maybe one of them would like it. Maybe - "

  
"Futaba." No more 'Oracle', huh.

  
"Oh, alright. I'll - I'll be a good girl. I'll be _ladylike,_ even. On this hypothetical date."

  
Now Ann was giving her just a little of her fingertip at a time, nudging it in and out, in and out, while she kept up what her thumb was doing. It was probably barely anything compared to a toy, or to the real thing, but Futaba couldn't pretend like it wasn't having an effect. She laid her face against Ann's shoulder, hiding beneath her waves of blonde hair, and pressed her lips tightly together.

  
"Well. Maybe somewhere in the middle is better. Or it just depends on the guy, maybe." Ann sounded introspective, figuring something out even as she kept up what her hand was doing between them. "I was all shy with Ryuji at first - you know - 'ladylike' - but now we're both more comfortable, I guess." Futaba couldn't see her face, but it sounded like Ann was grinning. "S'probly more fun if you're not, um. 'Ladylike.'"

  
She'd have asked what Ann meant by that, but then she'd have had to open her mouth, and then who knew what embarrassing noises might get out. Futaba just nodded instead and brought her hands up to rest them on Ann's hips.

  
Ann was _so_ soft. She kept letting her hands go where they wanted, but she must have grabbed her ass especially hard because Ann squeaked and laughed in her ear.

  
Ann got her revenge, too. She finally picked up speed and gave Futaba more of her finger, too, slicking it in and out at a steady pace, and now Futaba could even _hear_ it, too -

  
"Nnnh - "

  
Futaba stiffened. She waited for Ann to first laugh, then to stop what she was doing. Then put all of her clothes on and go home. But Ann just sped up.

  
She relaxed in increments, sinking back down to the mattress, and now she let her mouth fall open, and all kinds of embarrassing noises were coming out - god, she just wanted to bury herself in her closet and never come out -

  
"Be loud," Ann whispered, an inch from her ear.

  
"H-huh?"

  
"Be loud. Be as loud as you want. It makes it feel better."

  
What? "W-why would that make a difference?"

  
"It just does!" Ann gave her that pretty laugh in her ear. "And. Um. I wanna hear you. It's hot."

  
Ann was a bad enough actress that Futaba knew she was telling the truth. She'd really just said that, and she'd _meant_ it.

  
Futaba wrapped her arms around Ann's back and locked her legs, digging her heels into the mattress. Ann was relentless - she was thrusting her finger inside her, hard and fast now, and she kept stroking her clit, like nothing would stop her -

  
A warmth spread through her body, and she slammed her hips up against Ann's hand, viciously, until her entire body went rigid. Even now, Ann was laughing at her again, sounding delighted, but Futaba drowned her out immediately. Just like Ann had described, her muscles squeezed and released, squeezed and released, and she was carried right over the edge.

  
Futaba barely registered that Ann had gotten up off of her and was now sitting at the side of the bed, finding her clothing in the greenish dark. She felt like she'd been walloped by a cloud.

  
She started laughing. Pretty dumb comparison, but it'd have to do for now.

  
Ann laughed too, of course. All Ann had done this entire day was laugh at her. "Did I finger you senseless?" She wiggled her index finger at Futaba for emphasis.

  
_"Yes - "_ She sat up and threw her arms around Ann from behind.

  
"You think you learned some things, Oracle? For future reference?" Ann already had her panties on and had just picked up her bra.

  
She still felt all muzzy. It was hard to put the words together. "Yeah! But - but what about you - " Right before her eyes, Ann was covering up her pretty self. She wished she'd looked more, now.

  
"I'm good." Ann turned toward her as best she could and gave her another kiss on the cheek. "I, um. I really liked that, all on its own."

  
Futaba could have melted. "You did?! Just - just touching me?"

  
"Yeah." This close, Futaba could see how flushed her face was. Her eyes were sparkling, too. Ann wasn't just being nice. "And, you know. I'm your senpai. I gotta look out for you, right?"

  
The Metaverse RP was left behind, all at once, and Futaba was returned to the real world. The one where she had to drag herself to Shujin every day and pretend to care about useless information that she could look up on the internet whenever she wanted. The one where she eavesdropped on her classmates' techie conversations and answered back, but only in her head.

  
But it was also the same world where she got to see Ann and Ryuji every day at lunch, and after school, and sometimes even on the weekends. She'd always had a fear in the back of her mind that they just tolerated her for old time's sake. That they saw her as a burden. The annoying little sister that Akira probably saw her as. But this afternoon wouldn't have happened if Ann saw her that way.

  
Suddenly she wasn't dreading having to see Ryuji tomorrow anymore. He'd tease her about what she'd said, and it'd be embarrassing. Of course it would be. But she had a feeling she'd be able to handle it.

  
Ann had said there were worse things than being weird. There were probably worse things than feeling embarrassed, too.

  
Ann was still getting dressed, doing up the hooks on her cute bra now. Futaba turned on the lights for her, still bare from the waist down herself. But she didn't feel exposed, somehow. Futaba grinned up at her, and Ann grinned back.

  
\----------

  
FUTABA: Did you get home okay?  
ANN: yup  
ANN: did you ever find your panties  >_>  
FUTABA: Apparently the Feathermen had them.  
FUTABA: I think they're not the good guys we thought they were.  
ANN: lol  
ANN: hey, are you feeling better?  
FUTABA: Uh, yes.  
FUTABA: You could say that.  
FUTABA: Are YOU though?  
ANN: ahem. I may have taken a few minutes for myself as soon as I got in the door  
ANN: didn't take long...  
FUTABA: I can't believe we did that.  
FUTABA: Is there a reason you wouldn't let me get you back though?  
FUTABA: Did I gross you out?  
ANN: aw. no  
ANN: didn't want to pressure you, I guess  
ANN: I figured that was already a lot to adjust to or whatever  
ANN: oh shit hang on  
ANN: you'll love this  
FUTABA: ?  
FUTABA: Where'd you go?  
ANN: sorry, took a minute to find it again  
ANN: check THIS out  
FUTABA: THEY MAKE THOSE?  
ANN: yeah! I knew they made, like, Hello Kitty ones. I've seen those around. thought these would be more to your taste  
FUTABA: They even have Feather Parakeeeeeet aaaaaa  
ANN: you and green  
ANN: these are just cheap shitty ones but you could hide something like this in your room, right?  
ANN: if Boss insists on snooping  
ANN: they just look like chibi figures or something  
FUTABA: Maybe.  
FUTABA: It won't, like. Come on by itself and just start vibrating while I'm away, right?  
ANN: lol no  
ANN: shouldn't  
ANN: lemme know how it works out for you Oracle  
FUTABA: Who says I'm gonna buy it?  
ANN: my villainess intuition  
ANN: bet you already completed the order hehehe  
FUTABA: Aw shaddap.  
ANN: bet you need new batteries in one day  
FUTABA: This was YOUR IDEA.  
ANN: just teasing  
ANN: you know that  
FUTABA: Um.  
FUTABA: I kinda wanted to. You know.  
FUTABA: But you got dressed right away.  
FUTABA: Do you think that  
FUTABA: Oracle could pay Panther back? Sometime?  
ANN: I wouldn't be surprised if they teamed up again ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have only posted five fics but three of them have Masturbation 101 content. I think this is my brand now


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't keep Ryuji out of a fic if my life depended on it

ANN: so be nice to her today, k?  
ANN: and don't you fucking dare say a WORD  
RYUJI: who me? never  
ANN: I'm serious okay? don't  
RYUJI: she can take some shit ann  
RYUJI: she ain't a kid  
RYUJI: guess you know that first hand huh  
RYUJI: hehe  
ANN: oh fuck offffff

  
\----------

  
Futaba managed to pry herself out of her room that morning, and she got herself into her disguise okay - her Shujin uniform, so she could look like a slightly underspeced version of everybody else - but the front door was where she got stuck.

  
She hadn't stayed home sick for at least a whole month. Last time it had been a sore throat, one of those mysterious ailments that had been enough to make her too sick for school but not so sick that she couldn't undertake a stealth mission to Akihabara for a better mic headset to talk to Kana with. Maybe this time it'd be a stomach thing, something that she'd have to be laid up in bed for.

  
Not that it was so terrible to have to stay in her room. Maybe her new toy would arrive. If she was stuck in bed anyway.

  
A month _had_ to be long enough between sick days for Sojiro to go easy on her and call in to the school.

  
But... she was trying to do _better._ That was the thing. She wanted to be able to do what everybody else could do without her heart blam blam blamming in her chest like it was ready to give out. That included showing her face at school again after yelling about Ryuji's junk in front of everyone, and that included showing her face to Ann after - after what they'd done yesterday afternoon.

  
Sojiro would probably let her stay home. Sojiro would probably let her knock a giant hole in the roof if she told him it gave her better cell reception. She was starting to realize that he'd been letting her twist him around her little finger for years, and it didn't feel very nice to know that and then keep doing it. So she'd started trying to be good. Well, kind of good. Sort of good. Not because she was afraid of him punishing her - because it had literally never happened, not once, not for real - but because she was afraid of disappointing him.

  
It didn't feel very nice to disappoint yourself, either.

  
She'd already been standing in front of the door for a good five minutes. It was time to go. She tightened her grip on her schoolbag and headed out to the world map.

  
\----------

  
ANN: where are you?

  
FUTABA: Uh. Good morning?

  
This was way way _way_ sooner than she'd thought she'd have to talk to Ann. Futaba was still in Yongen station, waiting for her first train, and she didn't feel prepared at _all._

  
Deep breaths, deep breaths -

  
FUTABA: Yongen still.  
ANN: aw  
ANN: aren't you gonna be late?? I'm waiting at Shibuya

  
It was true, sometimes she'd run into Ann or even Ryuji at Shibuya station in the morning, if their trains happened to line up, but -

  
FUTABA: Waiting?  
ANN: yeah! are you coming today?  
ANN: or are you gonna stay home all day with your brand new Featherman toy ;)

  
Ann could be very perceptive.

  
Ann had never waited for her before, though. Suspicious. But she couldn't address that when there were more important things to talk about. Ann kept typing, too.

  
ANN: you could stay home sick  
ANN: stay home horny sdsdssdds  
FUTABA: It isn't even HERE yet.  
ANN: oh but you tried, didn't you?  
FUTABA: Well. Yeah. But it was too late for same day shipping.  
ANN: knew itttt

  
This was so _weird._ She'd spent the entire school year hanging out with Ann and Ryuji a whole lot more, and she'd gotten to know the both of them a whole lot better. And of course they'd made dirty jokes, and talked about dicks to make each other laugh. Ryuji, especially. But now she had... _experience._ With _Ann._

  
How the hell were you supposed to talk to the girl who'd fingered you and given you your first definite, for sure orgasm less than 24 hours ago?

  
Apparently just like this. Like nothing big had happened, and everything was fine.

  
ANN: oooh. shit. is it gonna be okay if Sojiro gets the package first

  
Of course she'd already thought of that. Did Ann think she was talking to an amateur?

  
FUTABA: The site said plain packaging, soooo. Should be fine.  
FUTABA: And I should be able to get to it first, since Sojiro will be at Leblanc still by the time I get home.

  
Her train arrived. She had time to read one last message from Ann before she filed in with all the NPCs.

  
ANN: lemme know how it goooooes ;)

  
She was running late, and Ann wasn't at Shibuya station by the time she got there. But Ann teased her in their private chat for the rest of the trip, and by the time she pulled up to Shujin station, it barely even felt weird anymore.

  
\----------

  
_Ryuji_ was weird at school, though.

  
Futaba'd just barely made the bell that morning, so she'd scrambled to her homeroom without seeing anyone she knew and then buried her head in her work for the rest of the morning. For once her schoolwork was a decent distraction instead of just an annoying, pointless grind, so she used it to keep away thoughts of 1) Ann naked, and 2) all the dumbasses at school who must've heard what she'd said about Ryuji's junk by now. Instead she used her well honed imagination to pretend she gave a shit about trinomials and was a good little student straight through to the lunch bell.

  
Yesterday she'd had a fateful encounter with the giant guarding the gate to Ann's classroom, but today she saw Ryuji there first, leaning against the wall in the hallway and killing time on his phone while he waited for Ann. His blonde hair made him pretty easy to spot. So did the piercings his mom had finally let him get: a barbell above and below his right eyebrow, and a small, thick silver ring in each ear.

  
He'd made her and Ann touch them over and over after they'd healed up, too, until Ann had tugged on the barbell just hard enough to hurt, making Ryuji start a slapfight with her.

  
God, he was such an idiot.

  
She was charging up all of her courage for when he'd inevitably open his mouth and start giving her shit about what she'd announced to half the school yesterday, but her special attack fizzled out when he looked up, sketched out a little wave and sauntered down the hallway alone, his head still buried in his phone.

  
Uh, what?

  
He'd obviously been waiting for Ann. So far as Futaba could tell, he was a little friendlier with the other people in his class this time around, now that the Kamoshida shit was a whole year behind everyone, but she knew he still didn't really hang out with anyone but her and Ann. So where was he going?

  
Ann finally got her bag in order and came out the door, and they merged into the crowd, letting the lunch rush carry them to the back of the long line for the school store. Ann chattered on about their current favourite gacha game and what she was craving for lunch, but Ryuji didn't come up once.

  
Ann grabbed a spot at one of the cafeteria tables, and Futaba slowly sank down beside her, lost in thought.

  
Were Ann and Ryuji fighting? Not just squabbling but for real fighting?

  
That was unheard of. Futaba had seen the two of them snipe and bitch and peck at each other the entire time she'd known them, but silence was a different thing. Ryuji'd made sure to wait in a spot where Futaba would see him and had then waved at her to - to just say hi? To let her know he wasn't pissed at her about practically announcing through a megaphone that she knew what his junk looked like, more or less? She squinched her eyes shut and hoped with every cell in her body that it was the second one.

  
She saw Akira every few months, when he came back to Tokyo for a visit. Makoto and Haru too. Yusuke a little more often than that, when he'd swing by Leblanc and load up on curry like an extremely localized black hole. After that, they'd usually hang out in the attic, their old stomping grounds, and get into short but intense debates about the best food to get if you only had 200 yen in your pocket, or if animals could understand how you were feeling by looking at you, or the purpose of art in society. That kind of thing.

  
But none of them were at Shujin. They'd all been so close last year, and now - well, now it was just her, Ryuji and Ann. At first she'd clung on tight out of sheer panic, but it was different now. Lately she couldn't imagine a day when she didn't see one or the other, or at the very least chat with them. And yeah, at first, it had been pretty lopsided. She wasn't delusional enough to think that it had been fun for them to have to spend their lunch breaks luring her out of the girls' bathroom, or talking her down from the ledge of Quitting School Forever (Or At Least, Until The AI Apocalypse Gives Us All A Permanent Vacation, Whether We Like It Or Not.) But now she thought, most of the time at least, that Ryuji and Ann enjoyed hanging out with her as much as she did with them.

  
On bad days she still went back on that, of course. On bad days she pictured all of her friends dreaming up secret plots behind her back to leave her out of weekend plans, or complaining in an extra secret chat about what a burden she was. But on bad days she also pictured herself permanently setting up shop in her closet with a water tube and a block of CalorieMate the size of her own head, like she was a giant hamster or something, so overall she tried to keep perspective as best she could.

  
Things were still good between her and Ann. The way Ann had teased her on the train and the way she was sitting next to her now, lamenting drop rates, had to prove that. But if she'd messed things up with Ryuji -

  
But he'd _waved_ at her. Just a nice little 'oh, hey' kinda wave before he'd slouched off down the hall. You didn't wave at someone you were pissed at.

  
So the weirdness had to mean Ryuji and _Ann_ were fighting, she decided. Actual fighting, not the little catfights they got into every other day that were mostly for show. And she had a feeling she knew the reason.

  
The only thing that had changed recently was what had happened between her and Ann.

  
Ann must have gotten sick of getting noncommittal grunts and 'mm's as responses and had pulled out her phone while eating her lunch, so Futaba did the same.

  
FUTABA: Hey, where'd you go?  
RYUJI: just eatin lunch  
FUTABA: Yeah but whereeeee  
RYUJI: oh  
RYUJI: stuck around in class  
RYUJI: didn't feel like goin far today

  
That was absolute bullshit. Things might have been going better for Ryuji this year than last year, as far as his class went, but he still hated being in his classroom one second longer than he had to. He was like her. So that had to mean he was hiding.

  
FUTABA: Try harder. I saw you in the hallway, dumbass.  
RYUJI: oh right lol  
RYUJI: whatever  
RYUJI: ain't i allowed? you on lunch patrol or smth  
FUTABA: The hell is lunch patrol?  
FUTABA: Think you mean dumbass patrol.

  
She'd already _said_ that. God. She started to get flustered, so as usual, she doubled down instead of backing off.

  
FUTABA: You think you can hide from me? You think I haven't infiltrated Ann's class before?  
FUTABA: Yours won't be any harder. Watch me, noob.

  
She hadn't _really_ been serious about marching right into Ryuji's class, and she was about to type in something to let him know she'd been kidding when he fired a bunch of quick messages at her.

  
RYUJI: don't  
RYUJI: i'll see you later  
RYUJI: stay with ann today, futaba

  
She pulled her knees to her chest on the cafeteria bench and stared at her phone, her stomach feeling like it was going to fall out any second.

  
He hadn't said a word about Ann. Well, almost. It didn't _sound_ like the two of them were fighting. So instead he had to be pissed at her and just... hiding it.

  
Ryuji didn't hide _anything._ She hadn't thought he knew how, until today.

  
Was he jealous? Did he think she was trying to steal Ann away? It wasn't like she had anything over him. Ryuji'd stayed the same height from when she'd met him last year, but he'd grown out a bit sideways instead, in the shoulders and the chest. He had better posture, too, most of the time, like he'd finally figured out that standing up straight showed off his hard work at the gym a lot better than hunching over. She could see his progress when he took his blazer off, sometimes, but she did wonder how the rest of him had come along since the last time she'd seen him in something tight - his stupid Metaverse bodysuit, probably.

  
In comparison, she was practically the same as she'd always been. Stat increase without a single cosmetic upgrade to show for it. Personal growth should at least come with a height increase, or - or some cleavage, maybe -

  
"Are you even here right now?" Ann's voice at her side made her blink hard until she came back to herself.

  
"Sorry." She put her curry away, only half eaten. "Just... thinking."

  
"About whaaaaat?" Ann teased. She put her chin in her hand and focused all her attention on Futaba like a well-timed critical. She was wearing some kind of light, barely there lipstick today, something that stayed put even after she'd eaten lunch, and even though the effect was subtle, it made her lips look -

  
She had way too much to get straight and way too little time left in the lunch break to do it. She had to stay focused. Keep it together -

  
She shut her eyes and talked that way so Ann couldn't distract her anymore. "I-is Ryuji mad at me? About - about yesterday?"

  
She couldn't see her, but she heard Ann make a supremely disinterested noise. "Enh. Doubt it. Sounded like he liked it when I talked to him yesterday. Not everyday somebody tells him he's hot, or whatever."

  
Her eyes popped open. _"I did not - "_

  
Ann started to laugh, the one she used when she'd gotten one over on Ryuji, usually - her troll laugh, deep in her throat - and Futaba despaired. She kept getting stuck on Ann's hair, or the way she sounded, or her pretty hands - since when did she give a shit about hands?! - and at this rate she'd just combust and burn away to a little pile of ash. She hugged her knees and rested her chin on them so she couldn't stare anymore.

  
"You cold?" Ann stopped laughing and started shifting next to her on the cafeteria bench, but Futaba couldn't risk looking at her. She looked straight ahead at the rest of the tables instead.

  
"No, I'm - o-oh."

  
Ann had just taken off her blazer, then her white varsity hoodie, and had draped the hoodie around Futaba's shoulders.

  
Her face was hot enough to melt right off her skull. Ann's hoodie was so _warm,_ warmed up by her _skin,_ and it smelled like her, too, sweet and girly -

  
"Thanks... ?"

  
The bell rang, and Ann shrugged off what Futaba had said as she packed up her lunch garbage. They split up, and as Futaba zipped up the hoodie, long enough on her to make it look like she wasn't wearing her uniform skirt at all, she realized she hadn't gotten any answers whatsoever. Just a pretty girl's hoodie.

  
In class, her teacher scolded her gently about breaking the uniform code, saying something about how she hadn't expected it of her, but Futaba kept the hoodie on all day long.

  
\----------

  
At Shibuya station after school, Futaba felt a certain someone come up behind her to flip the hood of Ann's hoodie over her head - it was big enough to cover her entire face, top to bottom - and practically jumped right out of her skin. She knew exactly who was doing it, too, but that didn't stop the mortifying squeal she made. Like a cross between a balloon being squeaked and a baby dolphin being murdered.

  
"Graaaaaah, you _asshole!"_ she shouted, loud enough for her voice to echo back from the tiled walls, as she pushed the hood up far enough to see. People were staring, she just knew it.

  
"Heard you missed me - " Ryuji was laughing too hard to dodge properly, so all he could do was protect his face. She went for his sides and belly instead, giving him vicious knuckle punches with her middle knuckles poking out for maximum bruisability. "Ow, ow, _fuck,_ quit it - "

  
"Who the hell would miss _you - "_

  
"Oh, is that _you,_ Futaba?" he said, pretending to be surprised in that dumb voice he used sometimes.

  
They both gave Ann shit for her cringy acting skills, but he was only a tiny bit better. He'd made the mistake of calling her acting voice her 'bimbo voice' once and only once; Futaba had switched sides and come to her defense in a second, and between the two of them, they'd managed to get him to not only take it back and apologize but also start doing the voice himself - not as a way to bug Ann but instead to draw their fire, like a peace offering. By now he seemed to have forgotten all about who'd come up with it first and used it more than Ann did, whenever he wanted to play dumb. Which was a lot.

  
He gestured at Ann's hoodie, still covering her from the top of her head to halfway down her thighs. "Sorry! Thought you were Ann," he singsonged.

  
She rolled her eyes hard enough to hurt. Ann was _seven inches_ taller than she was. And Ann had messaged both of them to let them know she had a shoot booked, anyway. "Aw, cut the shit," she muttered.

  
He finally did and just grinned at her, tall and dumb and smug. Stupid Ryuji. "Soft, huh?"

  
He was still talking about the hoodie. At least, she hoped he was still talking about the hoodie. "I guess." She felt her face trying to go red, just because he was paying attention to her, and ducked her head to hide in the hood. Ugh.

  
"Just don't get curry on it. Learn from my mistakes," he said, all solemn, like he was giving an important life lesson. "Think I still got a bald spot from when Ann found out."

  
"W-wait - " She whipped her head up. She couldn't help it. The mental image was bizarre but somehow appealing, and she had to look at his face again to see his reaction. _"You_ wear this?! Sometimes?!"

  
He went redder and redder himself, and now she figured they were matching. But his grin didn't falter a bit. Weird combo. "Yeah? So what?" And now he reached out and - and - and he just put his hand right on her shoulder and stroked the fabric, back and forth, with his thumb and fingers. But her arm was _underneath_ the fabric - Ryuji was petting her arm, really, not the hoodie - "I just can't zip it up. 's warm, though. I like it."

  
Her inner voice was making the same sort of shrill screaming noise that her outer voice had a minute ago. But she held it in, just barely, and picked up her phone all casual, like she didn't feel like she was tiptoeing on a tightrope strung over a volcano.

  
FUTABA: So you aren't pissed at me?

  
"For fuck's sake, I'm _right here - "_

  
FUTABA: Yeah, and so am I, and so are a bazillion people.

  
He got it. She was a lot better than she'd been when they'd met a year ago, but places like this weren't exactly her favourite, and he knew it. She carried the way she felt everywhere she went, really, but places like this, crammed to the gills with people and buzzing with noise, made her especially on edge.

  
RYUJI: oh fine  
RYUJI: no i ain't mad  
RYUJI: why would i be

  
He really wasn't the type to hide how he was feeling, so she took it at face value. All of her breath whooshed out in relief, but she decided to go easy on herself for a little longer and kept typing instead of talking to him directly. She watched him out of the corner of her eye, though, as he leaned against the tiled wall next to her and settled in for a chat convo.

  
FUTABA: Why the stupid act at lunch then?  
FUTABA: Are you pissed at Ann?  
RYUJI: what? lol  
RYUJI: i keep to myself for one whole lunch so now i must be pissed at everybody?  
RYUJI: didn't know i was so popular  
RYUJI: besides. thought you girls got along just fine without me

  
Fuck typing. She whipped her head to the side to face him and fired her words at him like a snake spitting venom. _"What. Did you say."_

  
His eyes lit up, and - _god._ That grin he had. It made her fingers twitch, like she wanted to punch him again or yank on big fistfuls of his stupid hair or - or some third thing, some unknown third thing that shimmered around the edges like the Palace Treasures used to before they'd materialized. A vague image of her doing something to Ryuji that she couldn't look at too directly yet.

  
The grin got even bigger. "You fuckin' heard me. Read me. Whatever."

  
FUTABA: WHY  
FUTABA: WHY WOULD SHE TELL YOUUUU  
RYUJI: she musta wanted to brag  
RYUJI: ain't every day she gets to go home with a cute girl

  
Fucking _what?_

  
Bluescreen. She stared straight forward and struggled to make her thoughts march in a straight line.

  
RYUJI: heh  
RYUJI: i just stayed away today so nobody would give you shit  
RYUJI: they kept tryin it with me in class so i figured you might get some too

  
Suddenly he looked up from his phone, and -

  
"Oh, this one's mine." Ryuji pushed off the wall beside her and headed toward the train that had just pulled in. "Hey, you wanna come over?"

  
_What?!_

  
"W-w-w- " Even her mouth had glitched out.

  
"No worries. See you tomorrow then." He got in line with the other students and commuters and they all shuffled forward to get on the train, one at a time, and this was her _shot,_ she _had to -_

  
She took too long to decide, though, and the train pulled out of the station without her. But she sent Ryuji a quick message before he could get too far, and he waited for her at the next station. They took the train to his apartment together, forty-five minutes away, and after he changed the subject to the retro gaming console he'd recently picked up, the train ride was barely even awkward.

  
\----------

  
She'd been over to Ryuji's apartment at least half a dozen times before, but that had always been with Ann. They'd messed with his dumbbells until their arms went wobbly, and played his game collection to death, and worn all of his old track medals at the same time for an avant garde fashion show, one that would've been right up Yusuke's alley. Ryuji'd pretended to mind for the look of it, but she could tell he'd liked having her and Ann over and pawing through his stuff just fine.

  
But now she was in his apartment all by herself, with nothing more powerful than Ann's hoodie equipped to boost her strength stat. No, her _courage_ stat. She knew his mom was at work, and would be for several more hours, and it all felt very... different.

  
Futaba was still at the door, arranging her shoes, when he beelined for his room so he could change out of his Shujin uniform. The parts that he wore, anyway. She was used to it, because he'd done the same thing every time she and Ann had come over, and every time she'd just hung out in the kitchen with Ann while he did it. In fact they'd always used the time to make fun of what he looked like in the old photos of him and his mom, stuck on the fridge with dog magnets. Her favourite showed Ryuji back when he'd been shorter than she was now, still wearing the same crooked grin but with black hair, not blonde. His mom was pouring him some kind of drink - was it his birthday? Some kind of party, maybe - and looking surprised at the camera.

  
She knew better than to ask Ann who'd taken the photo, at least, so they'd carefully avoided that and had just made fun of Ryuji's weird little boy fashion sense and the way his ears used to stick out.

  
This time, though, Ryuji'd left her all alone, and since he hadn't bothered to close the door to his room behind him, she peeped.

  
He wasn't _naked._ She wasn't perving on him. He probably wanted her to look, anyway, or he'd shut the door like a normal person. So she hid behind the corner just outside his room like a total non-perv and checked him out.

  
He was turned away, bent at the waist to dig through his drawers, but the shirt he'd been wearing was already off. He straightened up, holding a new one, still folded up, and started to turn towards her -

  
She got the hell out of there and realized she was actually shaking. Shaking and sweating and suddenly hot enough that she had to unzip Ann's hoodie and throw it over the back of a chair. She was stuck with her Shujin uniform, underneath, so she settled for unbuttoning her blazer and flapping it futilely over her white turtleneck. God, she was _melting -_

  
He came up behind her and pointed over his shoulder towards his room. "I got my games in there, if you still wanna... ?"

  
Her heart was about to pop right out of her chest, and the back of her neck was sweaty enough for her hair and her turtleneck to stick to it, but she made herself take one step forward, then another. She followed Ryuji into his room like she was about to solo a five-man dungeon all on her own.

  
Now he was wearing long black shorts that went almost to his knees and an orange tank with something in English on the front that she couldn't make out. Something in fat yellow and pink letters. It didn't matter, anyway. She barely saw the shirt. But she _did_ see his muscley calves and his muscley arms and - and if she didn't stop staring he'd never quit tormenting her for the rest of the school year. For the rest of her life. He'd notice her looking and she might as well just pick out a grave right now, because this wasn't going to go anywhere good -

  
But he just got down on the floor in front of his TV and turned on his new console. "Which one?"

  
She sat down with him, still feeling shaky and weak, and adjusted her glasses as she read the menu. She snagged the second controller and picked for the both of them, and they started to play.

  
Ryuji sucked ass.

  
Well, that probably wasn't fair. She'd done a deep dive on retro games a couple years back until she'd beaten every one she could find and download. Even the buggy and broken ones, with the help of cheat codes. This one was one she'd beaten once and had never bothered to pick up again, so her memory of it wasn't the best, but it started coming back to her soon enough.

  
"Are you even _trying?!"_

  
"Aw, fuck off, my dude moves weird - "

  
"You _chose_ him, you _wanted_ this - " she taunted.

  
Onscreen, Ryuji plummeted to his death down the same chasm that had eaten up two of his lives already. "Agghhh... "

  
"You must like it down there, huh."

  
"Trade me," he demanded. "Lemme be the short dude for a while." He held out his hand and made a gimme gesture.

  
"Fine," she said loftily, as she handed over her controller. "If you want to keep embarrassing yourself, go right ahead."

  
But he started laughing as he picked up her controller and handed her his own. "Eugh. You always this sweaty?" He buffed the controller on his shorts, trying to get all the moisture off.

  
"I-it's not _my_ fault," she sputtered, her voice going high and shrill the way she always hated but could never control. "It's _hot_ in here - "

  
It wasn't. Ryuji was just fine in his workout outfit, or whatever it was he'd thrown on that had his arms and legs bare. It was all her.

  
He got that stupid look on his face, like he thought he was hot shit - really, like he thought he'd gotten the best of her - but for once he kept it to himself. "Yeah, those turtlenecks are awful. I hate the whole fuckin' thing. The uniform."

  
"Right? I always change out of it the _second_ I get home. The - the _millisecond."_

  
He looked down at himself, as if to say 'me too', and then nodded towards the drawers behind them. "Go pick somethin' out then."

  
"What?! I'm not - I'm not wearing your stupid _jock clothes - "_ But there was something weirdly tempting about the idea. Ann's hoodie had felt nice, at least. And it wasn't every day that she got the chance to wear guy clothes.

  
Ryuji shook his head mournfully. "Hate to break it to you, but. If you're afraid of catchin' my cooties, you already got 'em."

  
He had to mean Ann's hoodie. "Noooo - " she wailed, already getting to her feet.

  
"Shirts're middle left."

  
She heard him start the same level again, this time with her controller. "You better not waste all those lives I got for us!" she called back over her shoulder.

  
He just waved his hand at her without looking and focused on the game. She opened the dresser drawer and stared down at a dozen or more neatly folded men's tshirts.

  
Was she seriously going to just... ? She picked through them, one at a time, as if it mattered which one she chose. Really, she was just snooping. She finally just grabbed any old one and wound up with a grey tshirt with the decal letters on the front nearly worn away, one that she hadn't seen him wear to school before.

  
Time for an equipment upgrade. Well, maybe more of a downgrade. She marched to the bathroom and changed, leaving her clothes folded on the kitchen table next to where Ann's hoodie was hanging.

  
Going back to his room was a bit harder though. She'd gotten it _on,_ but -

  
This wasn't an upgrade, and it wasn't a downgrade, either. This was bikini armour.

  
She looked down at herself. It was already a long tshirt and, on her, it was long enough to be a dress, just like when she'd worn Ann's hoodie. But, unlike when she'd been wearing Ann's hoodie, she'd left her plaid Shujin skirt behind.

  
Bikini armour wasn't _supposed_ to protect you. Not really. Not if you applied logic to it. It was for being looked at and nothing else. It was daring - just barely on the right side of decency - and drew the eye to the target areas.

  
She wasn't showing any more skin than she usually did, technically. She'd kept her knee high white uniform socks on, and Ryuji's shirt really did come halfway down her thighs. But it still _felt_ like she was showing more.

  
Don't be such a _coward,_ you still have your _panties_ on, so just -

  
She sat down next to him, picked up the second controller, and waited for her turn to come around like she walked around with only half her clothes on in a boy's room every day.

  
"Better?" he asked, finally making it over that stupid chasm.

  
"Y-yeah. Better."

  
\----------

  
They chugged through the game at a steady pace now that Ryuji had his pick of the characters. Secretly she agreed with him about the gimpy way hers moved across the screen, but since she had so much more playtime for the game under her belt, she decided to be gracious and considered it her handicap.

  
He was crowing over taking down a boss that had taken one, seriously, only _one_ of her lives when she finally just spat it out, staring straight at the screen.

  
"So like. If you aren't pissed at me, are you _embarrassed_ of me? To - to be around me, I mean? Where people from your class can see?" Her voice kept going higher and higher, so she shut her mouth like a trap before any more could get out.

  
_"No,_ I ain't - this again?" He made his dude do a bunch of spin jumps, then made him duck and straighten up over and over as if hoping to make her laugh and change the subject.

  
Didn't work. "Just tell me. You don't need them giving you shit cuz of me."

  
He hit pause and tossed his controller to the floor, then groaned and stretched out flat on his back, staring at the ceiling instead of her face. She couldn't tell if it was for her sake or his. Maybe both. "I can handle it, Taba."

  
So then they _had_ given him shit. She opened her mouth to answer, then shut it, replaying what he'd said.

  
She felt herself go hot, all over. He'd only called her Taba a couple times before.

  
Once had been when she'd dropped a full plate of curry, intended for Ryuji, on the floor at Leblanc. The sound it had made, like a bomb going off, combined with the feeling that Ryuji and Sojiro and every single customer was staring right through her, had been enough to send her diving for cover behind the counter. And the feeling that they were _still_ staring had been enough to keep her there, until Ryuji'd moved his new plate of curry, the one Sojiro had plated up for him, to the counter right on the other side of where she was crouching. Then he'd started a one sided conversation - no, a monologue - about all kinds of random things. Akira, Morgana. Curry, coffee. The specs of his shitty laptop, until he'd exhausted the handful of things he actually knew about it and started making up more, and that was what did it. Even if he did call her 'Taba' while he said it, she couldn't allow such ignorance to go unpunished. She'd popped out from behind the counter and torn into him until Sojiro banished the two of them to the attic, where they'd continued their conversation - really, the valuable lecture she was giving him - until she'd forgotten all about what had freaked her out in the first place. When they'd come back downstairs over an hour later and apologized to Sojiro for making him clean up after them, he'd just waved it off and given Ryuji another glass of Coke.

  
The other time had been on her first day of school at Shujin, when Ryuji'd called her over to his table at lunch. Ann had saved her in the morning, when she'd gotten lost in the sea of identical blazers and couldn't find her homeroom, but it was Ryuji who'd kept a spot for her next to him at the cafeteria table, over where all the grade twelve students sat. After the morning she'd had, she'd been struck dumb by a mute spell and had eaten her thermos of curry in near silence, but he hadn't tried to wheedle details out of her. He'd blabbed on and on about how stupid his own classes were until Ann had finally joined them, and then the two of them had commiserated until Futaba offered up a word here, then a word there. In no time they were talking like they were in a booth in Leblanc, or up in the attic again, and if any of the giants sitting on every side were staring at her, she hadn't noticed.

  
Now she was Taba again, apparently. Her face felt like it was beet red, but at least he wasn't looking. She'd been kneeling upright all prim and proper this whole time, sitting on her feet, but if he was just going to look at the ceiling, she could relax. She stretched out flat on her back next to him, pulling the shirt she'd borrowed back into place.

  
His voice was quiet. "They give you shit? In your class?"

  
"Nah. None." This was something she could smile about. A little. "Think they're scared of you."

  
He made an ugly snort. "I was scarier last year. More pissed off, anyway."

  
"You _look_ more pissed now, though. It's the piercings." Maybe not only the piercings. "Or the hair, on top of it. And - how come you still flub the uniform? If you aren't... mad?"

  
"It ain't about bein' _mad,_ it's - like, you kept your hair the same, too," he accused, still not looking at her. "Is your hair orange to show you're pissed?"

  
It did sound kinda stupid if you put it that way. "No," she shot back. "I just - I just like it. I always liked it. It's... different."

  
_"Exactly,"_ he said, sounding satisfied. "'s just about bein' different. You know, I used to wear the whole thing, like you 'n Akira. The uniform. I used to be so fuckin' good. I mean, on the outside, I guess. At school. But then. You know."

  
Ann had been the one to fill her in on the Kamoshida stuff. All the details past the surface level ones they'd told her when she'd first met them in the summer last year. But she'd never really talked about it with Ryuji himself.

  
"Yeah. I know," she said carefully.

  
"I played hooky a bunch, even after my leg was good enough to go back. I was shitty about it, I guess. My mom already had to - like, they made her _beg,_ Taba. I was there. They made her fuckin' beg to take me back at Shujin. Assholes. 'N after that I still didn't wanna go back so I stayed _home,_ but, like - " His voice had gotten a lot louder, until he stopped himself. He still had his eyes locked onto the ceiling.

  
"Sure _sounds_ like you went blonde to show you were pissed."

  
"Yeah, whatever," he said wryly. "Fine. I was. Pissed." He went quiet for a moment, thinking. "You shoulda seen their faces, though. When I dyed it 'n went back with my uniform all halfassed. Gave 'em somethin' to look at other 'n the crutches, I guess."

  
She hugged herself, still laying on the floor, as she tried to imagine what her own mostly nice, mostly chill teacher would say if she came in to class on a Monday morning with not just orange but bleach blonde hair. No turtleneck, too. And - and _piercings,_ even. It was sort of fun to think about. "They crab at you about it?"

  
"Heh. Yeah. More letters home. More shit for my mom to deal with."

  
She'd met his mom a handful of times, when she and Ann had stayed for dinner. She was nice. "You bad boy."

  
"Yeah, but - " And now he finally rolled over, raised himself up on one elbow, and looked straight at her. This time she was the one to hastily glue her eyes to the ceiling. "She made me a deal. She said she'd rather I do what I gotta do to get there and keep goin'. You know? She said she was cool with the letters about the stupid uniform shit, and the hair, if she didn't get any more attendance letters from the school. We shook on it."

  
She risked a peek at him. He was all fired up about past stuff, and keeping his eyes on her face and only her face. Hopefully she'd gone back to a more normal colour by now. "Your mom is cool."

  
"Yeah. She is."

  
"That's - that's kinda like me and Sojiro," she said slowly. "Like, now that you say it, they must've mailed him a letter about _my_ hair, too, but he never even brought it up with me." She faced the ceiling again. "But my deal with him is that I just. Keep trying."

  
"Attendance?"

  
"Y-yeah. And the stupid waste of time homework. And the group projects, even. But. I do the uniform too. The whole thing. I think it makes him... happy."

  
Happy was an understatement. Sojiro'd taken so many photos of her in her full uniform on her first day of school at Shujin that she'd finally just belted down the street to Yongen station to get away from the camera. Maybe that had been his plan all along.

  
Ryuji started to answer, but she cut him right off. "But I _hate_ it. I hate it so muuuuch - " She rolled onto her belly and buried her face in her arms.

  
"Right? 's fuckin' ugly. 'n like. Tight? Constrictin'. The turtleneck, I mean. You should just be like Ann 'n me 'n wear somethin' else under the blazer."

  
"But - Sojiro - "

  
"Well. Yeah."

  
"I guess I'll just keep ripping it all off every day as soon as I get home. I'd - I'd change at the train station if I could. Maybe I _will._ Maybe I'll put my clothes in my bag and - " But that didn't even make sense, to change just for the train ride instead of at home. "Well, I _hate_ it," she repeated.

  
He laughed, then, and flopped back over on his back, legs splayed out until he kicked her with his nearest foot and left it there. "Yeah. Me too."

  
They lay like that, feet technically touching - what did _that_ mean? - until she got too uncomfortable laying on her belly and sat up, tugging his shirt back down as she did. "Are we gonna do this or what?" She picked up her controller, and he picked up his, and they went back to it.

  
\----------

  
Ryuji was hurtling through a a slippery platform level, leaning his whole body into the turns in time with his dude on the screen, when she heard her phone vibrate on the kitchen table. She leapt to her feet to go get it without thinking about how she moved, and - did he just _look?_ He wouldn't have seen anything he couldn't normally, if she'd just been wearing her uniform skirt. Or the shorts she liked to wear when they hung out with Ann on the weekends. She didn't _think_ he'd have been able to see anything, anyway. Maybe he was just trying to see if her skirt was even there. Maybe he'd somehow seen it folded up way over on the kitchen table -

  
_Did_ he look?

  
Wondering about it would drive her nuts if she let it. She slid into one of the chairs at the kitchen table to give herself time to calm down while she checked her phone.

  
ANN: so boreddd  
ANN: entertain meee  
FUTABA: Your shoot's still going? Geeze.  
ANN: if I'm late I get dinged, but they get to keep me waiting around as long as they want  
FUTABA: It didn't even start yet??  
ANN: nah it did. but now they're screwing around with lighting or something, I dunno  
ANN: anyway  
ANN: how's your project going  
ANN: muehehe  
FUTABA: HE ISN'T  >:C  
ANN: wh  
ANN: WAIT  
ANN: RYUJI??  
ANN: you mean he's just not into it or something?  
ANN: omg GET ITTT  
ANN: KEEP TRYING

  
The _audacity._ It took her breath away for a second. Then she was hammering out her response, thumbs flying.

  
FUTABA: what NO  
FUTABA: He's not my project!!  
FUTABA: FCK U ANN  
ANN: ssdsdsdsd HAHA  
ANN: I mean, I was asking about your toy, but if you're just gonna go out and get yourself something better, that sorta answers my question ;)  
FUTABA: There are so many things wrong with that sentence.  
FUTABA: Like, 1, I did not get my toy yet.  
FUTABA: 2, I'M NOT HERE FOR THAT YOU ANIMAL.  
FUTABA: 3, the assumption that he could possibly be any better than my shiny new Featherman Parakeet toy with 7 different vibration modes and a light up faceplate is LUDICROUS.  
ANN: you're not... here?  
ANN: HERE?  
ANN: you're actually at his mf HOUSE??  
ANN: omgg I thought you were like out eating burgers with him or something. fuckkk  
ANN: the crew are all looking at me ssdsdsdds  
ANN: jesus Futaba  
ANN: I said entertain me, and you really delivered lmao  
FUTABA: SHUT UPPP  
FUTABA: WE'RE PLAYING GAMES.  
ANN: uh huh  
ANN: sexy games right  
ANN: horny games  
FUTABA: NOO  
FUTABA: I idnt evn bring mylaptp

  
She was shaking with indignation. She took a second to breathe and to hopefully get her typing skills back. But Ann was quicker than she was.

  
ANN: oops gotta go  
ANN: seriously. status report, k? after dinner?

  
Status report for _what?_ How far she got with Ryuji in the game they were playing, or -

  
FUTABA: Okay.

  
Why did she _agree?!_ Ann was too powerful -

  
ANN: ttyllll  
FUTABA: Later.

  
God. She'd said yes. Now she was stuck with it. She locked her phone, left it on the kitchen table and slunk back to Ryuji's room.

  
"D'you gotta get back? Go home, I mean?" Ryuji asked over his shoulder without looking at her.

  
"N-no," she said, as she knelt beside him on the floor in front of the TV and picked up her controller. Ryuji was currently struggling through a water level, and as she was watching, a googly eyed fish sent him to a watery grave. "Ugh. Filthy casual! You missed the secret, anyway."

  
She got into the level and showed him where the bonus stage was. He waited until she was home free at the points tally at the end of the level to talk so he wouldn't break her concentration. "Thought maybe you got bored," he said, and pointed with his chin towards the kitchen table, where she'd been sitting.

  
"Oh. No. I was just. Talking to Ann."

  
She regretted saying it immediately. That dumbass grin of his came back, all teeth and absolutely infuriating. "Uh huh. Talkin'. Right."

  
It was his turn, and he was just sitting on the world map, so she couldn't even use the game as an excuse to ignore him. _"Yes. Talking."_

  
"Sounds like you 'n Ann had a good long talk yesterday, though." He started the next level, but she knew he wasn't going to let her off that easy. She could feel it coming, like a homing missile pinging on her radar. "Thought you'd be all talked out by now."

  
She just about lost her shit right there, but at the very last second she saw the way through and nabbed it. "Sounds like _you_ and Ann have lots of good long talks too," she shot back. "Sounds like _you and Ann_ have been keeping things from me."

  
This was safer. If she took herself out of the equation, there was nothing to be embarrassed about. She and Ryuji had repeated dumb dick jokes back and forth so often that sometimes they only had to trade a look, or whisper one syllable, to crack each other up and make Ann put on the act that she was disgusted with both of them. So this shouldn't be any different. She settled herself in and watched his dude bumble across the screen as she waited to hear all the details they'd been depriving her of all along.

  
Apparently he was going to keep her waiting, though. "Aw, don't be like that. It's not dating. 's just... fuckin' around."

  
"You still coulda told me! You guys just - you guys just think I'm a stupid kid. You don't tell me anything."

  
That wasn't fair, and she knew it, but now she'd said it. It was out there.

  
He paused the game. Her heart was pounding hard, like it was trying to make a break for it. "It ain't like that. I tell you lots."

  
He was _staring_ at her, at the side of her face, she could _feel_ it, but she couldn't look back. She pretended the greyed out pause screen of the game was super interesting.

  
He sounded so serious. She desperately wanted the goofy dumbass grin to come back, but she could tell by the sound of his voice that it hadn't. "Taba, this is just like the - the whole talkin' about my Metaverse bodysuit in the lunch line thing. Right? You - you like me, or whatever. Or you just - " He snorted, like he thought it was funny. " - like lookin' at me. I can tell. I ain't _that_ dumb. So I'm not just gonna shove it in your face that I do shit with Ann that I don't do with you."

  
She remembered the thing he'd said yesterday, when she and Ann had been talking about their gacha game. Really, she'd never forgotten it, but now it came slithering back to the front of her mind instead of just hanging out at the back. Something about little anime girls with big heads and no tits not being sexy.

  
He thought she was just a little girl with no tits. A kid. She was just a year younger than him, but she couldn't help being short, and she couldn't help being _flat -_

  
Her face was so hot. She finally gave up on pretending to look at the TV and pulled her bare legs up to her chest so she could bury her overheated face in her arms.

  
He was _still going,_ too. "'n like. I ain't gonna flatter myself. I seen you lookin' at Yusuke, too. Ann. Remember that time last year when we were both lookin' at Makoto at the same time? You caught me, 'n I caught you?"

  
He always did this. He dragged the least enthusiastic laugh out of her possible, a miserable single 'heh' that she had as much control over as she did the colour her face was going. But it was still a laugh. He could always make her laugh.

  
She abruptly decided she'd finally had enough of feeling awkward and leaned into it instead of pretending it wasn't there. He'd seen her with a red face before. He'd seen her looking and feeling a lot worse than this, actually. She lifted her head and put on a haughty voice. "An ass like that deserves to be appreciated. It would be rude not to."

  
He groaned appreciatively. "I knowww, right? Her legs, too. Hers're better 'n mine, I think."

  
She disagreed, but figured that talking about what Ryuji looked like was still not exactly the safest route. Her mind raced, searching for a strategy to get them out of this swamp, but came up with nothing.

  
He took her silence for something else. He turned to her, still kneeling on the floor and - and he touched her _leg,_ he just reached out and ran his fingertip from her knee down to her uniform sock - "You're doin' good too, though. You got tone now. Your legs're lookin' a lot better 'n they did last year."

  
Her mind had gone blank white, like a snowstorm. Not a thing in it.

  
He smiled at her - a nice smile, not the dumbass grin at all - and then he unpaused the game and finished the level.

  
Her head was starting to thaw. Did he mean that like a health... thing? Did he just mean her legs looked stronger than last year? Or did he actually mean that she looked - good? Did he _like_ how she looked? And maybe - she tried not to get her hopes up, but - maybe he was such a dumb meathead jock that they were the same thing, anyway. Maybe him telling her her legs looked toned _was_ his way of saying she looked good.

  
He poked her in the side. "Your turn."

  
"I _know,_ I _know - "_ she groused, and tried to focus. She picked up a flower and sent out her fireballs, and they roasted her enemies to a crisp, but her thoughts were elsewhere. She plummeted to her death down a crack in the ground within a minute of starting the level.

  
He honked out a single obnoxious laugh. "Dirty casual."

  
"It's _filthy_ casual, idiot - " She leaned close and swatted at his arm and shoulder, and instead of trying to get away, he just took it, laughing. And when he started the level, she didn't miss the little move he made. He scooched closer.

  
He died too, of course. A flying turtle. He let out a death rattle. "Agggugggh," he moaned. "He bit my head off."

  
"Bit your _dick_ off - "

  
He laughed harder and agreed. "Fuckin' ate it - "

  
"Grossss - "

  
"Dick for dinner."

  
"Dick is a delicacy. Bon appetit, turtle dude."

  
Now he was roaring laughter. "Guess I should take it as a compliment, right?"

  
"Yup. He's gonna feed his family with your dick for the rest of the week."

  
"They're probly endangered. I did 'em a favour, lettin' 'em chow down."

  
"You're a real environmentalist."

  
They giggled together over dumb shit, same as always, and she picked up her controller again, feeling significantly better.

  
She got further in the level with fancy footwork, but this time her fireballs were off. She couldn't seem to make one land no matter what she did, and a different turtle wiped her out. Now it was Ryuji's turn to mock her. "Your aim is shit."

  
"My - my timing's just off, I bet they're just - these guys are learning my moves," she stammered.

  
"Uh huh. You better show 'em the moves you showed Ann."

  
That barely even _made sense -_ "They're just - they're just anticipating me! The turtles. Next time they come I'm gonna - "

  
"Next time they _come_ \- next time you _make_ 'em come - "

  
He was so stupid. "I didn't even!"

  
He'd started his turn, but he wasn't even trying. He was just making his dude spin jump over and over in place as the clock ticked down. "Not what I heard. Ann made you sound like - like a lesbian sex god. Sex goddess."

  
"What did she tell you?!"

  
"Kept tellin' me you were cute."

  
Her stomach dropped. That was practically nothing. Worse than nothing. Cute was a word you used for gacha girls. Kitties were cute.

  
Kids were cute.

  
"Oh." Then the rest of what he'd said hit home. "I'm n-not, anyway. A lesbian." It felt true, so she left it.

  
He snorted, finally picking up the pace before the timer on the level ran out. "Coulda fooled me."

  
"We were just talking about me looking at you and _Yusuke,_ dumbass - "

  
He leered at her without pausing the game, and his dude fell right off of a platform and died. "Lookin's not the same as, like. Takin' a girl home with you."

  
"She - she wouldn't even _let_ me," she said, way too loud, and now he wasn't leering at her anymore. "Ann - Ann did that, to me, but she wouldn't let me get her back. I wanted to b-but she said _no."_

  
"Aw." Before she could react he was close, _touching,_ thigh to thigh, and now he had his arm around her shoulders. She was about to combust, it was _too much,_ but he let her go again right away and looked at the screen. But he was still right there, an inch or two away. "She told me about it so I wouldn't give you shit about it today. About the talkin' about my junk thing, I mean. But she sounded happy about what happened with you. She wasn't, like. Embarrassed. Not really."

  
But there was the 'cute' thing - and Ann had barely let her touch her back - and -

  
And now Ryuji was giving her a nice smile again. Like it was okay that she liked him. Like he didn't mind a bit.

  
Her body moved before her brain could sort itself out. She got up on her knees, lunged forward and kissed him. He moved, though, and she stumbled, too, so her kiss landed on his cheekbone, just shy of his ear.

  
She'd freaked him out. She'd freaked _herself_ out. He looked - he looked _shocked,_ like that was the last thing he'd wanted her to do - why _did_ she?! Why did she have to be so _stupid -_

  
"Your aim is shit," he repeated fondly, and scooched close again until their legs were pressed together, side by side.

  
She could have been a block of ice. Frozen. A Futabasicle.

  
He was used to her freezing up, though. It happened more often when the three of them were out in Shibuya, or when she let herself get too loud on the train, but now that it was happening in his room, he treated her just the same. He muscled their conversation along all by himself like nothing had happened. "Here. You handle the legs. I'll do the aimin'."

  
He set down his controller, then took the right half of hers in his right hand, hovering his thumb over the action buttons. Now she just had her left hand on the left half of the controller, with her own thumb by the directional pad. "How the hell is this supposed to work - "

  
It didn't. They started the level and together they dragged her poor dude through it like he was in some kind of bizarre turtle-based torture dungeon. Her dude ran off of cliffs, and was smushed by blocks, and played tag with the snappy turtles again and again, unleashing a constant stream of fireballs the whole while. They didn't hit their target a single time.

  
"Your aim is _worse - "_

  
"Yeah, you're right. Let's switch." She started to laugh as he flipped the controller upside down, so that now she was in charge of the action buttons and he had control of the directional pad. But... upside down.

  
He was just distracting her, though. She'd kissed him, or tried to, and now he was being nice to her. He was distracting her so they didn't have to talk about it.

  
She always wrecked everything.

  
She stopped pressing the buttons, and he ran their dude off of a platform.

  
He pulled the controller from her loose fingers, set it on the floor in front of them and leaned close. Closer than before. He got closer and closer until her brain came online at the last second, just quick enough for her to register what was happening -

  
He kissed her, and it wasn't just a peck on the cheek like Ann had given her yesterday. It was warm and wet and felt like it went on for ages. It was less than what she'd done with Ann yesterday but it debilitated her like a status effect in just the same way. Stomach: quivering. Temperature: fever hot. Brain: blitzed.

  
When he finally pulled back, she had to take her glasses off. They'd fogged up like in a cartoon.

  
He'd wiped her drives. She kept trying to talk, but made no sound at all.

  
He liked her _too,_ he liked her _back -_

  
"Y-you s-said I was a lesbian!" she accused. "Why would you kiss a lesbian?!"

  
Even with her glasses off, she could tell he'd been smiling, but that got rid of it. Now he looked shifty. Defensive. "You just said you weren't!"

  
"W-well, okay, but - " She stalled for time by putting her glasses on and adjusted them carefully. Then the thing he'd said yesterday came back to her again. "You said little girls with no tits aren't sexy!" she blurted out.

  
Why was she like this? She should have been happy, but her brain was bending over backward to undo what had happened less than a minute ago. She'd _liked_ it, but her brain was trying to talk her out of it again. Trying to talk Ryuji out of it, too.

  
"Taba." His voice was too nice. It ripped her up inside more than him being mad at her would have. She glared at her knees and waited for the rest, simultaneously wishing that he'd keep talking and that the universe would throw her a bone and make her one more case of spontaneous human combustion. Fwoosh, right here in Ryuji's apartment. Human candle. Nothing left but a grease spot.

  
"I didn't mean you, stupid," he went on. "We were talkin' about... catgirls or somethin'. I meant those dumb chibis you guys blow money on ain't sexy."

  
It was practically identical to what Ann had told her. But hearing it from his mouth made it real. She let out a shuddering breath and pulled her knees to her chest again. "Amelia's sexy," she pouted. "She's not a chibi in - in her status screen. You get to see everything."

  
"Oh yeah? Show me."

  
She fetched her phone and pulled up the gacha game, and they scrolled through her harem. He scoffed at her idea of 'everything', saying that thighs and cleavage didn't count, but even he had to admit that Amelia's combat quotes were cute. She helped him download the game to his phone and got him through the introductory battle when an alarm on his phone went off and interrupted the game.

  
"Huh?"

  
"You better change." He saved their progress on his retro game, then shut the console and the TV off. "My mom's gonna be home in ten."

  
The idea of his mom coming home and seeing her skirt on the kitchen table made her blood run cold in her veins. But there was something funny about it, too. She gathered up her skirt and the rest of her uniform from the table, plus Ann's hoodie, then called over her shoulder, "How come you've got an alarm for when your mom comes home, huh?"

  
He rolled his eyes and gave her the middle finger. She laughed victoriously and hopped into the bathroom to change.

  
When she got out, it was awkward again. For a few seconds. Then he leaned down toward her, and she stood on her tippy toes to meet him half way, and they had just enough time for another kiss before they heard his mom's key in the lock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FUTABA: What's the difference between jam and jelly?  
> RYUJI: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
> ANN: -_-  
> FUTABA: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
> YUSUKE: I would like to know. Futaba, please, w

**Author's Note:**

> I post Persona 5 fanart to Twitter and talk about fanfic a lot here: https://twitter.com/araforreal
> 
> Come yell with me about P5!


End file.
